Video Shows Moment SpaceX Polaris Dawn Mission Returns to Earth

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn crew has returned to Earth after an historic mission that featured the first private spacewalk.
The Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the early hours of Sunday.
“Splashdown of Dragon confirmed! Welcome back to Earth,” SpaceX wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The crew was led by billionaire Jared Isaacman who became the first non-professional astronaut to perform a spacewalk during the five-day orbit mission.
“We are mission complete,” Isaacman radioed mission control as the capsule floated in the water on Sunday morning.
Billionaire SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk celebrated the return on X, which he also owns, writing, “Welcome back to Earth.”
Newsweek has contacted SpaceX for comment on Sunday via email.
The Polaris Dawn mission was conducted to test new spacesuit designs as well as complete the first ever commercial spacewalk.
Each of the mission’s four crew members spent around 15 minutes outside after exiting the hatch one-by-one and carried out stretches to test the suits.
“The SpaceX EVA suit, designed for extravehicular activities (EVAs, or spacewalks), is based on the familiar black-and-white intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit, but with enhancements and improvements in key areas to make it lightweight and unobtrusive, all while protecting astronauts in the unforgiving environment of outer space,” space journalist Andrew Jones explained for Space.com.
Isaacman, 41, is an American entrepreneur and pilot. He is the founder of Draken International, a private air force provider as well as the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a payment processor used in retail and hospitality businesses across the United States.
He has a net worth of approximately $1.9 billion, according to Forbes. He has declined to say how much he paid for this SpaceX mission.
According to the Associated Press, Isaacman said in 2021 when he purchased the space flight: “I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit.”
He said at the time that he aims to use the private trip to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee.
“I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way,” Isaacman said.
The other crew members were two SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon as well as pilot Scott Poteet, a U.S. Air Force veteran.
Update 9/15/24 9:40 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.