The historic SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission wrapped up a successful mission early Sunday morning by safely entering the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
"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.
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."
This mission included several history-making moments. The Polaris Dawn's private crew of astronauts performed the world's first commercial spacewalk during the third day of a five-day trip to Earth orbit.
A four-person crew of civilians on board SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission unlocked the hatch of their capsule and made history as the first group of non-government astronauts to conduct a spacewalk.
... The entire SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle propelling and protecting the crew was depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space -- a dangerous and historic milestone in the Polaris Dawn crew's five-day journey through Earth's orbit. The mission has already set records, traveling farther into space than any human since NASA's Apollo program concluded more than 50 years ago.
The crewmates -- which includes Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn's financer; his close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis -- had prepared for this spacewalk since taking flight at 5:23 a.m. ET Tuesday.
Isaacman "egressed Dragon" and conducted his first "suit mobility tests that will test overall hand body control, vertical movement with Skywalker, and foot restraint," according to a SpaceX post on X at 6:53 a.m.
"Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, it sure looks like a perfect world," Isaacman said during his first views outside the Dragon. Minutes later, he said "it's gorgeous."
Cost-effective and protective spacesuits will be necessary for long-term space exploration projections.
"The smart engineers over at SpaceX built an EVA suit in less than a year," adds Isaacman. "NASA has been working on this for quite some time and the cost usually goes into the billions. I can assure you that SpaceX and Polaris are not investing anything even close to that."
The cost savings matter. NASA's budget request for its Artemis lunar program is only $7.8 billion for fiscal 2025. That's compared to the just shy of $29 billion (inflation-adjusted) cost of the Apollo program in 1966. Saving on suits could make a big difference when pockets are not nearly as deep as they were three generations ago.
The Polaris Dawn crew has been busy with other projects and setting other historical records.