Following the first private spacewalk in space, the SpaceX mission landed off the coast of Florida

The four crew members of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission returned to Earth on Sunday, September 15, after completing the first private spacewalk in history this week. The Dragon spacecraft landed off the coast of Florida (United States) at 03:37 local time (09:37 Paris time), according to images in a SpaceX video broadcast live.

A team was immediately deployed to recover the capsule and its four crew members: billionaire Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, and a former US Air Force officer, Scott Poteet, who was the pilot on this mission.

The capsule was slowed in its dizzying descent by parachutes. All the main objectives of the mission, which marks a new milestone in commercial space exploration, have been met.

They had all taken off on Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and on the first day their spacecraft ventured up to 1,400 kilometers (880 miles) high, higher than any crew since the Apollo moon missions more than half a century ago. Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon then became the two women to travel the farthest from Earth.

“The Earth really does seem like a perfect world”

Then, on Thursday, came the historic event: the first spacewalk by civilians, a risky operation until now reserved for professional astronauts. Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis each ventured out of the spacecraft for about ten minutes, which was then at an altitude of 700 kilometres, higher than the International Space Station (ISS), which is in orbit at 400 kilometres.

“We have a lot of work at home, but from here, the Earth really does seem like a perfect world”the 41-year-old billionaire said during his outing. The two adventurers went through movements to test their white and gray suits, SpaceX’s first for spacewalks.

The development and testing of these suits, which Elon Musk’s company hopes to produce one day “millions” colonizing Mars, were one of the big goals of the trip. NASA chief Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on Thursday, saying the event represented “a major step forward for the commercial space industry”.

The crew, who trained for more than two years for the mission, also tested laser communication between the ship and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, which provide internet from space. They ultimately carried out around thirty scientific experiments, in particular aimed at studying the impact of space travel on the human body.

Polaris Dawn inaugurates the Polaris program, which was announced two and a half years ago. This program is to consist of three missions in total. After a second similar to the one that is ending, the third is to be the first manned flight of SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket, currently in development and intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.