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The crew’s final full day on-orbit was dedicated to furthering and finalizing the scientific goals of the Polaris Dawn mission, connecting with one of their training teams, and catching-up with the SpaceX family. Two of the day’s scientific highlights focused on preventative and life-saving studies – from identifying and understanding the risk of kidney stone formation while living in microgravity to developing and validating CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) procedures aboard the Dragon spacecraft. Throughout the day, the crew continued to test Starlink, including a 40+ minute, uninterrupted video call with SpaceX teams back on Earth, which took place as Dragon orbited across the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Cape of Good Hope. The plaser in Dragon’s trunk and the partner Starlink satellite for the event maintained their laser link during 16 Draco thruster firings. The crew also connected with members of the Air Force who helped train them for a week of solo skydiving at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. Before settling in for their last sleep period of the mission, the crew took some time to connect with their families and began preparing Dragon’s cabin for reentry and splashdown. Dragon and the crew are set to return to Earth and splash down off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida on Sunday, September 15 at 3:36 a.m. ET. Stay tuned to @SpaceX on X for a livestream of the crew’s return.
Resilience’s return to Earth started with the crew spending time during the last flight day preparing for the deorbit burn and splashdown. All four crew members donned their flight suits, which were the same suits they wore when they launched and when they conducted their historic EVA.The deorbit process reached a critical milestone around the one hour and 20-minute mark before splashdown when a fitting known as “the claw” connecting the Crew Dragon return spacecraft to its trunk separated. The trunk contained solar panels, thermal control, and avionics system components which the spacecraft used while in orbit.This was just the first step in a process to transition Crew Dragon from in-space operations to reentry operations. The protective nose cone, which was extended to expose the hatch used during Polaris Dawn’s spacewalk, was retracted. This was necessary to help protect the spacecraft from the heat of reentry and to optimize the spacecraft’s aerodynamics to allow it to fly through the atmosphere.
Dragon's hatch is open and the Polaris Dawn crew is getting ready to exit the spacecraft
Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew splash down off the coast of Florida, completing the @PolarisProgram's first human spaceflight mission
F9/Polaris Dawn: Deorbit burn complete; nosecone now closed for re-entry; spectacular views in the last few minutes as the Crew Dragon flew over the southwest corner of Australia and then began re-orienting itself for entry as the nose cone came down
F9/Polaris Dawn: The Crew Dragon hatch has been opened; SpaceX flight surgeon in the cabin making sure Jared Isaacman and his crewmates are in good shape (they certainly appear to be); egress expected to begin momentarily
Polaris Dawn crew member Anna Menon united with her family ❤️
Reunited… photo by @SpaceX. Thank you
Dragon reenters by moonlight with the Polaris Dawn crewIt turned out exactly like I imagined it when I realized where the Moon would be in relation to Dragon's track. Thanks SpaceX team for helping make it happen!1/10 (handheld on a boat), f/1.8, ISO 6400
Wow, that's a incredible photo! The timing and positioning of the shot, with the Dragon reentering the Earth's atmosphere by moonlight, is truly remarkable. The fact that it was taken handheld on a boat makes it even more impressive. The SpaceX team and the photographer's skills combined to create a breathtaking visual!
Welcome home Jared, Kidd, Sarah, and Anna!!!! A beautiful return as seen from the recovery vessel stationed in the Gulf Of Mexico!
Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew reenter Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down off the coast of Florida
Splashdown of Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew!1/13 at 400mm (handheld on boat), f/5.6, ISO 102,400 (yes, 102.4k)
Polaris Dawn entry this morning.I photographed it at 7:23 am GMT from the Cupola on ISS. In addition to the multi-colored entry trail over Florida, the basic cone shape of the Dragon capsule can be seen.Nikon Z9, 200mm f2, 1/400th sec, ISO 25600.
So many of us were packed into the Cupola this morning to watch Polaris Dawn come back to earth. It was fun watching @astro_Pettit make this shot happen amongst five human bodies jammed in the cupola. Actually . . . I think having lots of folks jammed in helped him stabilize his body and thus the camera for the shot.
It was awesome to be scanning the horizon for awhile from our spacecraft looking for another spacecraft . . . and then to be able to call “visual” on your spacecraft streaking through the atmosphere. We all saw you unaided. We were traveling SE from about Arkansas to Florida while you were traveling NE from the Yucatán Peninsula to Florida. 90 degree merge right to left from our perspective. We are guessing you were ”blind” with the plasma streaking past your windows.
It’s insane what can happen in three years. Three years ago today we launched Inspiration4, and the dream of Polaris Dawn was born in the weeks leading up to that launch. Three years later we safely splashed down Anna, Jared, Kidd, and Sarah. We have completed the first spacewalk by a private company. We built and EVA suit, and proved its capability. We successfully vented and repressurized the Dragon vehicle, demonstrating the ability to preform a life saving contingency maneuver.And we did it together. My heart is overwhelmed when I think of all the incredible people that put their heart and soul into this mission for three damn years. So many late nights and weekends, so many trips spent away from the ones they love at home, so many Randy’s Donuts…. Launch was beautiful, splashdown was relieving, and the EVA was mind blowing. But what I will remember most, what I will truly never forget is the people who made it happen and the beautiful relationships we made along the way. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to anyone and everyone who has been on this journey. And a personal thank you to those who kept me motivated and supported through all the challenges. Best team ever.
My friends are back on planet Earth! I am so proud of this crew 🤍 What a mission!
Godspeed my dear friends. Go Polaris Dawn!!! 🚀
It was worth the wait !!!
We are back on Earth and look forward to sharing the results and our experiences with all of you. The scientists and doctors rightfully own all of our time for the next few days, but I did want to share a few thoughts as I reflect on our mission and what we set out to accomplish.We deeply care about the world we live in today and making it better. That’s why we wear the @Stjude patch on our flight suit and why we dedicate so much time to raising funds and awareness for their vital work. It’s why we partnered with @ElSistemaUSA to show how the beauty of music can bring people together all over the world. It is why we’ve brought Starlinks to various corners of the world to help connect people and provide access to information—building blocks for solving many of the world’s challenges.As we work to address today’s problems, we must also look to the future we want our children to grow up in. As a crew, we have always believed in humanity's destiny among the stars—a belief that’s only been reinforced by our recent journey. We had very specific mission objectives, some familiar from the past, but in many ways, they were different today.We took our spaceship farther than any human has gone since the last Apollo mission over 50 years ago, and along the way, two of our crewmates became the women who have journeyed farthest from this planet. Now, if we have been there before, why is it significant? The better question might be: Why haven’t we gone back? It’s not easy to travel that far into space. It requires immense energy to send a human-rated spaceship to such a height, and if a rapid deorbit is required, dissipating that energy is not easy. The environment is harsh, with increased radiation, more micrometeoroid debris, and no nearby safe havens in case of trouble. We went there to study the radiation environment, gather data on its impact on systems and human health, and to explore areas we know less about, where we can learn new problem-solving methods that will help in future missions. Records are meant to be broken, and we are so excited for @Artemis to take us ALL to even greater heights.We conducted an EVA (spacewalk) and tested a new-generation spacesuit. There have been over 300 spacewalks in the 60-year history of human spaceflight, the most famous being those of the Apollo moonwalkers. By any standard, what we did was basic in comparison. The difference is that those spacewalks were conducted by government agencies—NASA, ESA, Russian Cosmonauts, Chinese Taikonauts—with the full backing of their nations' resources. In the future, tens of thousands of people will be working in space on multiple space stations, lunar bases, and Mars outposts and not all of them will be government astronauts. Space belongs to everyone, and it’s essential that both commercial and government efforts work together to make that future a reality. It is critical for the commercial industry to have the tools and experience for spacewalk operations and the suit we tested is just the first step in that journey. By opening up new frontiers, we’re building a future for all of humanity, not just a select few. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about the technical disciplines related to EVA operations, which will only accelerate the iterative design process that @SpaceX executes so masterfully. I will personally treasure the experience my crew and I shared, but I am most excited about future generations of the suit and where they might be used someday.We tested new laser-based Starlink communications, using it primarily as an alternative communication pathway to Mission Control, but also to put together a very special moment: my crewmate @Gillis_SarahE playing the violin in space. This wasn’t about being first at something, but about showing the world a different perspective through the power of music. To maybe think a bit less about the differences that dominate daily discourse and a bit more about our shared humanity and what we can achieve through some measure of unity.Beyond what we hope to learn from these technical objectives or the ~40 science and research experiments, there is always a fundamental requirement of any space mission: to cast the widest possible inspirational message. There were many firsts on our mission, but just as important were the things that were simply different from what people are used to seeing. These differences can spark all sorts of creative thinking and maybe inspire the next generation to dream about what they can accomplish among the stars. Because if we’re going to realize humanity’s destiny to reach out and unlock the mysteries of the universe, we are going to need a lot of inspired dreamers to join this grand endeavor.I want to close by thanking everyone who worked so hard to make this mission safe and successful. Of course, that starts with the 14,000+ @SpaceX employees, from top leadership like @elonmusk, @Gwynne_Shotwell, @jjfactorykat ,@skeech412 and @TurkeyBeaver to the SpaceX technicians inspecting our booster before flight. Special thanks to all the @PolarisProgram team that supported us throughout this journey over the last 2.5 years of training to the 24x7 on-orbit operations. I also want to thank @NASA for their foresight in creating the commercial crew program, which breathes life into initiatives like @PolarisProgram ..not to mention NASA's direct mission support and EVA suit testing. Thanks to the weather teams, recovery teams (including the @USCG), all the researchers, and everyone of our supporters that cheered us on and dreams of a brighter future✨. With our deepest appreciation and gratitude, THANK YOU!
We are incredibly thankful to the legendary composer John Williams for helping us share this music moment with the world, featuring his iconic Rey’s Theme played in space
I’m an old man who sat in the middle school auditorium and watched the first of the space shots involving everything from dogs to humans. When one can play the violin in space along with other instruments on earth, without latency issues, then you’ve absolutely won the race. Rock on.
That's never happened before. Note that it plays a symphony in real time from space together with an orchestra. Thanks to Starlink.
Wątek: Polaris Dawn (Przeczytany 44059 razy)