The first private mission involving a human spacewalk returned to Earth. On Sunday, September 15, Jared Isaacman and the crew of Polaris Down successfully splashed down the coast of Florida.
Polaris Down Mission
The Polaris Down mission returned to Earth at 9:40 a.m. PST on Sunday. More precisely, the Crew Dragon spacecraft capsule splashed dawn near the Dry Tortugas Islands, located in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
The mission was organized by American billionaire Jared Isaacman. He became its commander. He was joined on the flight by U.S. Air Force pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. In order to carry it out, the standard Crew Dragon capsule had to be modified.
The fact is that Isaacman decided to make not only the highest, if counting the height of apogee, private flight, but also perform during it a spacewalk. Crew Dragon wasn’t equipped with a full-fledged airlock for this purpose, but it received not only its own name Resilience, but also the Skywalker design, which the astronauts held on to during the spacewalk.
Spacewalk and return to Earth
Polaris Down started on Tuesday, September 10, and as planned, it was a record-breaking event. The apogee of the orbit was 1,408 kilometers above Earth, much higher than the International Space Station. And on Thursday, September 12, the astronauts made their first-ever private spacewalk.
To do this, they had to put on spacesuits and depressurize the capsule. However, only Isaacman and Gillis went directly outside the capsule. The billionaire appeared out of Crew Dragon only up to his waist. His task was to test the new spacesuit developed by SpaceX. He became the 264th person to engage in extravehicular activities in orbit. Gillis, who became the 265th, was out of the spacecraft up to her knees.
The mission came to the end on Sunday. It happened that Crew Dragon’s re-entry into the atmosphere took place not far from the ISS, so the astronauts aboard the station watched the spacecraft with delight. Speed extinguishing and landing near Dry Tortugas took place with no problems.
By the way, this is the first time SpaceX has used this location for the Crew Dragon capsules to land. Previously, they had landed much closer to the Florida coast. However, this time there was a storm there, so it was decided to test an alternate option.
According to www.space.com
