Successful return
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The private space mission "Polaris Dawn" has come to an end. SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft landed in the sea on Sunday morning (CEST), as can be seen on live images from the company. According to earlier SpaceX statements, the spaceship was supposed to land near the southern tip of Florida.
The trip by billionaire Jared Isaacman and three other amateur astronauts began on Tuesday morning. After the launch from the Cape Canaveral spaceport on the west coast of Florida, the Crew Dragon ascended to an altitude of around 1400 kilometers.
This is the greatest distance from humans to Earth since the last Apollo missions to the moon in the early 1970s, SpaceX emphasized. The ISS space station, which has been in operation for decades, is located at an altitude of around 400 kilometers.
"First commercial spacewalk"
Later came the riskiest part of the venture, billed by SpaceX as the "first commercial spacewalk". Isaacman and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis were to remain outside for 15 to 20 minutes at a time and test the spacesuits used for the first time. However, the amateur astronauts did not float freely in space during the activity, which lasted only a few minutes each, around 740 kilometers above the Earth; they remained on a kind of ladder in the entrance to the Crew Dragon.
As the Crew Dragon, unlike the ISS, does not have an airlock, all four members of the crew, including former jet pilot Kidd Poteet and SpaceX employee Anna Menon, had to slip into the spacesuit. With the hatch open, they were also exposed to the vacuum of space; there was no air to breathe in the cabin.
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