SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission’s 4-person crew returns to Earth: Crew Dragon capsule splashes down off the coast of Florida

The Crew Dragon carrying four astronauts – tech billionaire and mission commander Jared Isaacman, former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis – returned to the home planet, splashing down the coast of Dry Tortugas in Florida on September 15. The feat achieved also celebrated the specific Crew Dragon capsule’s third trip to space.

SpaceX explained why they specifically picked Dry Tortugas as the landing spot in an X, formerly Twitter, post: “SpaceX teams recently selected this new splashdown location after nearly two weeks of launch delays due to unfavourable weather forecasts for each of Dragon’s seven return sites off the coast of Florida.

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“Dry Tortugas adds greater geographic diversity for Dragon’s return and helps increase the odds of having acceptable return weather forecasts for missions such as Polaris Dawn.”

SpaceX Crew Dragon’s re-entry to Earth

To finally pierce through the planet’s atmosphere, the capsule carried out the “de-orbit burn” manoeuvre, following which the ‘Resilience’ spacecraft was exposed to severely scorching temperatures – up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius), per CNN’s report. Despite travelling around 17,000 miles per hour and facing immense pressure and friction, the crew members remained comfortably settled in thanks to the Crew Dragon’s heat shield.

Finally, the capsule deployed parachutes, and its descent slowed down before splashing into the ocean. Half an hour later, the rescue crew ultimately relied on the special vessel called the “Dragon’s Nest” for its recovery from the water.

The intended spacewalk was conducted early Thursday, making waves for the private space sector. Isaacman and Gillis stepped out of the vehicle to complete the high-stakes challenge for about ten minutes each. After testing the extravehicular activity (EVA) suits’ depth of functionality, they returned to the spacecraft. Away from Earth’s hustle and bustle, Isaacman exclaimed, “…from here – looks like a perfect world.”

SpaceX engineers’ heartwarming cosmic adventures

In addition to conducting numerous experiments while grappling with space adaptation syndrome – “a type of microgravity-specific motion sickness,” the astronauts also appeared to blow off some steam in their characteristic ways in the otherworldly setting.

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As a trained violinist, Sarah Gillis, inspired by real-life Star Wars circumstances, played a rendition of “Rey’s Theme” from The Force Awakens chapter. In an attempt to test SpaceX’s Starlink and chart into in-space connectivity, her performance was also shared with experts back on Earth through the satellite network.

Meanwhile, Anna Menon sent her kids “Kisses From Space” by cosmic reading the book she co-authored to them and some youngsters at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital from the Dragon. “This book, ‘Kisses from Space,’ is a story that I wrote for you, James and Grace, to remind you that I love you and am always thinking of you even when we’re apart,” the SpaceX engineer said from the capsule.

Menon’s husband, Anil – a NASA astronaut, shared via X that called her via FaceTime on SpaceX Starlink for the book-reading session. “The whole family was poised to surprise her. She was shocked to see everyone dressed up in space costumes (minus princess Elsa who was just going to be a princess no matter what). We were determined to match her glamorous hair, so we found our own. Here are some of our questions to space: “who cut your hair?” “How do you get it to stay so perfect” “what can we do to keep it going on earth.” It was a heartwarming moment to provide support for our loved one who will be returning Sunday 3:36am at Tortuga and flown back to KSC. We can’t wait to see her 🚀 🐉”

The post later invited SpaceX boss Elon Musk‘s comment: “Cute 🥰”