The Polaris Dawn crew returned safely to Earth early Sunday morning, concluding the historic, privately funded mission. The Dragon spacecraft carrying the mission’s four astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Scott Kidd Poteet, Sara Gillis and Anna Menon — splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at approximately 3:30 a.m. ET.
On Thursday, Isaacman and Gillis completed the first commercial spacewalk, taking turns exiting the spacecraft for a series of suit mobility tests. The mission took Gillis and Menon farther from Earth than any women have ever traveled before. Polaris reached a maximum altitude of about 870 miles, the furthest humans have traveled since the Apollo missions.
The crew also conducted a number of science experiments and successfully completed a 40-minute video call and file transmission with Earth, a major test of Starlink’s space communications capabilities. This included a video recorded during the mission of engineer and violinist Gillis playing the violin in space. “A new era of commercial spaceflight has begun, with many more to come.” Polaris X Posted on Sunday morning.
