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by Mike Wall
September 15, 2024
from
Space Website
Polaris Dawn
packed a lot of action
into a five-day flight...
Polaris Dawn has landed
The historic SpaceX astronaut mission - which conducted the
first-ever private spacewalk, among other achievements - returned to
Earth today (Sept. 15), splashing down safely in the Gulf of Mexico
off the coast of Florida at 3:36 a.m. EDT (0736 GMT).
"Polaris Dawn we are mission complete.
Thanks for all the big help pulling this
mission together," said mission commander Jared Isaacman
after the crew splashed down in the ocean.
A drone view of the
Polaris Dawn crew
capsule
after splashdown on
Sept. 15, 2024.
(Image credit: SpaceX)
The reentry was seen by astronauts aboard the International Space
Station.
"We actually had a pretty neat view of
Polaris Dawn entering.
All of us were more or less crowded in the
cupola watching it," said NASA astronaut Mike Barratt,
according to CBS' William Harwood.
"That was pretty spectacular for us."
SpaceX teams recover
the
Polaris Dawn
mission's crew capsule
on Sept. 15, 2024.
(Image credit: SpaceX)
A landmark private flight
Polaris Dawn was funded, organized and commanded by billionaire tech
entrepreneur Jared Isaacman.
He did the same for SpaceX's
Inspiration4 mission in
September 2021, the first-ever all-private crewed flight to
Earth orbit.
There wasn't supposed to be such a long wait for
his second flight:
Polaris Dawn had originally been
scheduled to launch in 2022, but it was pushed back repeatedly
due to the mission's novelty and complexity.
The Skywalker
mobility aid structure
on the Crew Dragon
Resilience spacecraft
seen as Polaris Dawn
completed its deorbit burn
ahead of reentry on
Sept. 15, 2024.
(Image credit: SpaceX)
Much of that complexity revolved around the spacewalk.
SpaceX needed to develop and test its own
extravehicular activity (EVA) suit, for example, and modify
Polaris Dawn's Crew Dragon capsule, named Resilience, for the
occasion.
Such modifications included installing a new
hatch structure called Skywalker, which features a ladder,
handholds and footholds.
Video
Source
Video also
HERE...
Also
by Polaris: "Polaris -
Music in the Cosmos"
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