After completing a historic successful mission, a SpaceX capsule carrying four civilians landed off the coast of Florida on Sunday.
The mission, which included the world's first fully civilian spacewalk, returned to Earth after five days in orbit and also included commercial spacewalks. The return to Earth was broadcast live by Elon Musk-led SpaceX.
SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew have completed the first commercial spacewalk!
“SpaceX, all of us at home have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth certainly looks like a perfect world.” – Mission Commander @rookiesackman Viewing our planet during Dragon Exit and from a distance of ~738 km pic.twitter.com/lRczSv5i4k
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024
The mission was funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who was also on the flight, along with retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteat and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
Upon completion of the mission, in a post on SpaceX, Polaris posted, “SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew have completed the first commercial spacewalk! “SpaceX, all of us at home have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth certainly looks like a perfect world,” – said mission commander Jared Isaacman during Dragon exit and viewing our planet from ~738 km.
The Dragon and Polaris Dawn crews landed off the coast of Florida, completing the voyage. @polarisprogramfirst manned spaceflight mission of pic.twitter.com/Sobt66zxnL
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024
According to PTI, Isaacman has become the 264th person to perform a spacewalk, while the Soviet Union conducted the first spacewalk in 1965. SpaceX's Sarah Gillis is the 265th. Till now, the concept of spacewalk was reserved for professional astronauts.
“Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew landed off the coast of Florida, completing the Polaris program's first human spaceflight mission,” SpaceX's X post said.