On Sunday (15th September), SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth after a five-day mission that featured the world’s first commercial spacewalk.
According to SpaceX’s event webcast, the Dragon capsule touched down off the coast of Florida soon after 03:37 local time (07:37 GMT). “Splashdown of Dragon confirmed! Welcome back to Earth,” SpaceX posted. NASA meanwhile described the mission as a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry.
As per the reports, the temperatures neared 1,900C (3,500 degrees Fahrenheit) due to the high pressure and friction of moving through the air at almost 7,000mph (27,000 kph) when the spacecraft re-entered the earth’s atmosphere.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024
A team of 4 civilian members led by billionaire Jared Isaacman created history as they travelled farther into space than any other humans for more than 50 years. The other team members included Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force pilot, as well as SpaceX staffers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
Isaacman and Gillis further will now be known as the first non-professional crew to complete a spacewalk, a dangerous maneuver that includes depressurizing the crew compartment and exiting the ship. Until this voyage, only astronauts from government-funded space agencies had attempted this task. Images transmitted live showed the two crew members emerging from the white Dragon capsule and floating 435 miles (700 kilometers) above the blue Earth below.
Mission Specialist @Gillis_SarahE is conducting the same series of suit mobility tests @rookisaacman completed pic.twitter.com/XbS6SNFv3a
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
During the spacewalk, Isaacman addressed mission control in Hawthorne, California saying, “Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here — looks like a perfect world”. Since the Dragon does not have an airlock, the crew was exposed to the vacuum of space all through their spacewalk. This record-breaking spacewalk was made possible only using sophisticated astronaut suits outfitted with cutting-edge technology.
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024
During the five days, the crew carried out over 40 experiments, including research into the effects of space flights on human health and inter-satellite laser communication between the Dragon Spacecraft and Space X’s Starlink satellite.
Gillis, a qualified violinist, performed “Rey’s Theme” from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” on her instrument alongside orchestras set on the Earth. Her rendition was beamed back to Earth via SpaceX’s Starlink as a demonstration of the satellite network’s ability to provide in-space communication.
The said video was made in collaboration with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, for which the Polaris Program raised funds throughout the trip. The crew spent five days in orbit inside the Dragon spacecraft, called Resilience, which was launched last week on Tuesday, 10th September morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission created history by reaching a maximum altitude of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the highest any person has flown since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
What happened during the first-ever commercial spacewalk
The first-ever commercial spacewalk was delayed by roughly 2.5 hours, beginning at 10:50 GMT after the spacecraft’s hatch was opened.
Before leaving, the pressure inside the capsule was gradually adjusted as part of the pre-breathing process, which prepares the astronauts’ bodies. When the hatch was opened, the spacecraft was in an elliptical orbit 736 kilometers (457 miles) above the Earth’s surface at a speed of more than 25,000 kilometers per hour (at least 15,500 mph).
As a billionaire mission commander, Jared Isaacman unlocked the hatch and stepped forward to broadcast the first view of the solar system from outside, the SpaceX crew on Earth erupted in excitement. He began limb movements that he had memorized before to test out mobility in outer space.
Polaris Dawn Flight Day 3 Update
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024
Early Thursday morning at 7:58 a.m. ET, the Polaris Dawn crew successfully completed the world’s first spacewalk – also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA) – from Dragon at 732.2 km above Earth.
Shortly after arriving in space on… pic.twitter.com/ASEH6G3sR9
After a few minutes with his body partially outside the hatch, the 41-year-old Isaacman stepped aside and was succeeded by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, who went through similar movements, turning side to side and flexing her limbs to see how the new spacesuit, intended to protect the crew from the harsh vacuum, would hold up.
They were the only ones to pass through the hatch, which was secured by a 12-foot (3.6-metre) rope attached to the ship. They used Skywalker, a hatch structure equipped with the company’s hand-held mobility assistance technology, but neither entirely exited the hatch. The other two team members meanwhile performed their own mobility and transmission tasks.
Join the Polaris Dawn crew to learn details behind some of the ~40 science and research experiments being conducted during the mission. Many of these experiments will provide valuable data regarding human health in space ahead of future long-duration space missions pic.twitter.com/yw89eGf11U
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 13, 2024
SpaceX’ mission
The Polaris program’s main purpose is to develop and test technologies that will enable SpaceX to proceed toward its long-term goal of traveling to and establishing interplanetary communities on other planets, particularly Mars.
The dangerous spacewalk conducted recently was intended to test the company’s new Extravehicular Activity (EVA) astronaut suits, which had been created and put together expressly for this mission over the course of two years. As private space travel grows in popularity, SpaceX hopes to develop a suit design to accommodate different body types at a cheaper cost.
Commander @rookisaacman has egressed Dragon and is going through the first of three suit mobility tests that will test overall hand body control, vertical movement with Skywalker, and foot restraint pic.twitter.com/XATJQhLuIZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
The SpaceX suits lack a Primary Life Support System (PLSS), a set of support equipment worn like a backpack by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that allows them to move more freely in space and do more advanced jobs outside the space station. The crew’s trimmed-down suit indicates that they received their life support (oxygen) through the long tubes attached to their spaceship.
The business intends to learn from the impacts of high altitude and radiation exposure during the experimental trip. The laser and satellite communications checks would enable future connectivity enhancements.
The second test assesses the crew’s ability to move up and down using Skywalker. @rookisaacman and @Gillis_SarahE will use both the horizontal and vertical bars and gauge their maximum reach
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
Apart from this, NASA says there are presently 19 individuals on missions in Earth’s orbit, which is an all-time high. They include seven ISS staff members, a three-person crew of the Soyuz mission preparing for a crew swap at the ISS, three astronauts on China’s Tiangong space station, and two test pilots of the Boeing Starliner flight to the ISS who will return to Earth in early 2025.
While everybody is cheering around the current event, some reports suggest that the project violates a provision of the Outer Space Treaty, which was ratified by world powers in 1967 during the Cold War. The article states that non-government entities’ actions in outer space must be authorized and monitored by a state party. Polaris Dawn is not a NASA mission, neither it is regulated by the US government.
