The private space mission ‘Polaris Dawn’ has ended. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft landed in the ocean on Sunday morning (CEST), as seen in the company’s live image. According to previous SpaceX information, the spacecraft was expected to crash near the southern tip of Florida.
The journey of billionaire Jared Isaacman and three other amateur astronauts began Tuesday morning, when Crew Dragon lifted off from Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Florida’s west coast and ascended to an altitude of about 1,400 kilometers.
SpaceX notes that this is the farthest distance from Earth since the last Apollo lunar mission in the early 1970s. The ISS space station, which has been in operation for decades, is located at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
Later came the riskiest part of what SpaceX bills as the “first commercial spacewalk.” Isaacman and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis were each supposed to spend 15 to 20 minutes outside, testing out their first-ever spacesuits. But the amateur astronauts weren’t floating freely in space about 450 miles above Earth during the activity; they were stuck on a sort of ladder at the entrance to Crew Dragon.
Because Crew Dragon doesn’t have an airlock like the ISS, all four crew members, including former jet pilot Kidd Poteet and SpaceX employee Anna Menon, had to wear spacesuits. When the hatch opened, they were also exposed to the vacuum of space. There was no more air to breathe in the cabin.
