Update: Splashdown occurred at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 UTC)
The Polaris Dawn crew closed out a record-breaking commercial space flight and packed up Saturday for reentry and a predawn splashdown early Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of Key West, Florida.
The Crew Dragon capsule, which will fly on a southwest-to-northeast trajectory and carry billionaire Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and company engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, is expected to fire its booster rockets at 2:40 a.m. EDT Sunday to deorbit.
As it plunges back into the visible atmosphere, Crew Dragon's protective heat shield will endure temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit before the craft slows enough to deploy its parachutes. Splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico near the Dry Tortugas, Florida, is expected around 3:36 a.m.
A SpaceX recovery ship was stationed nearby to retrieve the capsule and help crew members exit the spacecraft for routine post-landing medical checks before a helicopter flight to shore and reunions with family and friends.
The Polaris Dawn mission, funded by Isaacman in cooperation with SpaceX, launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday morning. The crew immediately set a new altitude record for a manned spacecraft in Earth orbit, reaching a highest point, or apogee, of 875 miles.
That's the farthest any spacecraft has flown from Earth since the last Apollo trip to the Moon in 1972.
Earlier Thursday, the crew set another record when Isaacman and Gillis took turns floating just outside the capsule's hatch in the first non-governmental spacewalk ever conducted.
“At home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman marveled, taking in a spectacular view of the borderless planet as he floated in open space just outside the Crew Dragon’s hatch.
The goal of the brief excursions was to test SpaceX-designed pressure suits in the harsh environment of space, assess their mobility and check the motion of wrist, elbow and shoulder joints to help engineers design improved versions for future flights to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.
In addition to a full suite of biomedical investigations, the crew also tested laser communications technology that links Crew Dragon to the Starlink constellation of commercial internet relay satellites.
“Early this morning, via @Starlink space lasers, the Polaris Dawn crew chatted with SpaceX teams over coffee and donuts,” SpaceX posted on X Saturday. “During the 40+ minute, uninterrupted video call, Dragon completed half of an orbit over the U.S. East Coast, cutting southeast over the Atlantic Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope.”
Earlier in the mission, Gillis, an accomplished violist, participated in what amounted to an international concert from space, performing “Star Wars” composer John Williams’ “Rey’s Theme” accompanied by young musicians from the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Sweden and Uganda.
https://x.com/PolarisProgram/status/1834557770374296010
The Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three planned by Isaacman, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, in cooperation with Musk.
The second flight will be another Crew Dragon mission, while the third will be the first piloted flight of SpaceX's massive Super Heavy rocket — Starship — now under development in Texas.
It's not known how much Isaacman pays for the flights or how much SpaceX is funding on its own.
Polaris Dawn is SpaceX's fifth commercial Crew Dragon flight to orbit and the 14th including NASA missions carrying crew to the International Space Station. The California rocket maker has launched 54 men and women into orbit since crew flights began in May 2020.
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