SpaceX's private astronaut ship returns to Earth

The Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts landed off the coast of Dry Tortugas Island, Florida, at 2:37 p.m. on September 15, Hanoi time. The Polaris Dawn mission made history by reaching a higher altitude than any other mission in the past five decades. The spacewalk on September 12 also marked the first time this activity was completed on a private mission.

However, reentry is among the most dangerous stages of any space mission. To safely return to Earth, the Crew Dragon capsule fires its descent engine to prepare for a glide through the thickest part of the atmosphere. The spacecraft then experiences extreme temperatures, up to 1,900 degrees Celsius, due to the pressure and friction of contact with the air while traveling at 27,000 km/h. However, the crew is able to maintain a comfortable temperature thanks to the Crew Dragon’s heat shield, located at the bottom of the 4-meter-wide capsule.

Air resistance began to slow the vehicle before Crew Dragon deployed parachutes to decelerate. Upon landing, the spacecraft briefly lurched on the water until a rescue team waiting nearby pulled the capsule onto a special boat called the “Dragon’s Nest.” Final safety checks were performed there before the crew exited the capsule and began the journey back to land.

The crew includes mission commander Jared Isaacman, CEO of financial firm Shift4 Payments, former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX operations engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. The quartet kicked off the mission by breaking the altitude record, reaching an orbit 1,400 kilometers above Earth. That is the highest Earth orbit ever traveled by humans, beating the 1966 record set by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission (1,373 kilometers). The milestone marks the farthest orbit humans have traveled to Earth since NASA’s Apollo program ended in 1972.

The Crew Dragon then descended for a spacewalk. In a high-risk activity outside the vehicle, the Crew Dragon completely decompressed before Isaacman opened the hatch, exposing the crew to the vacuum of space. Isaacman and Gillis left the vehicle for 10 minutes, conducting a series of checks to learn how their spacesuits functioned before re-entering the Crew Dragon and closing the hatch. The spacewalk went without major problems.