SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Crew Returns to Earth After Historic Spacewalk (cnn.com) 26
"It is with great relief that I welcome you home!" SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell posted on X. "This mission was even more extraordinary than I anticipated."
"SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew is home," reports CNN, "capping off a five-day mission to orbit — which included the world's first commercial spacewalk — by splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico." The Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts landed off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, at 3:37 a.m. ET Sunday.
The Polaris Dawn mission made history as it reached a higher altitude than any human has traveled in five decades. [870 miles (1,400 kilometers) — beating the 853-mile record set in 1966 by NASA's Gemini 11 mission.] A spacewalk conducted early Thursday morning also marked the first time such an endeavor has been completed by a privately funded and operated mis.sion.
But returning to Earth is among the most dangerous stretches of any space mission. To safely reach home, the Crew Dragon capsule carried out what's called a "de-orbit burn," orienting itself as it prepared to slice through the thickest part of Earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft then reached extremely hot temperatures — up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius) — because of the pressure and friction caused by hitting the air while still traveling around 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kilometers per hour). The crew, however, should have remained at comfortable temperatures, protected by the Crew Dragon's heat shield, which is located on the bottom of the 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) capsule. Dragging against the air began to slow the vehicle down before the Crew Dragon deployed parachutes that further decelerated its descent. Having hit the ocean, the spacecraft briefly bobbed around in the water until rescue crews waiting nearby hauled it out of the ocean and onto a special boat, referred to as the "Dragon's nest." Final safety checks took place there before the crew disembarked from the capsule and began the journey back to dry land.
You can watch video of the splashdown on YouTube.
While in space, the crew performed 40 science experiments and research, according to the article. "Gillis, a trained violinist, also brought her instrument along for the mission and delivered a rendition of 'Rey's Theme' from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." (Slashdot reader SuperKendall points out that the "Rey's Theme" rendition "was not just the astronaut playing violin in space, but was in conjunction with young adult orchestras around the world.")
SpaceX's COO said the performance "made me tear up. Thank you all for taking this journey."
"SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew is home," reports CNN, "capping off a five-day mission to orbit — which included the world's first commercial spacewalk — by splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico." The Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts landed off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, at 3:37 a.m. ET Sunday.
The Polaris Dawn mission made history as it reached a higher altitude than any human has traveled in five decades. [870 miles (1,400 kilometers) — beating the 853-mile record set in 1966 by NASA's Gemini 11 mission.] A spacewalk conducted early Thursday morning also marked the first time such an endeavor has been completed by a privately funded and operated mis.sion.
But returning to Earth is among the most dangerous stretches of any space mission. To safely reach home, the Crew Dragon capsule carried out what's called a "de-orbit burn," orienting itself as it prepared to slice through the thickest part of Earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft then reached extremely hot temperatures — up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius) — because of the pressure and friction caused by hitting the air while still traveling around 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kilometers per hour). The crew, however, should have remained at comfortable temperatures, protected by the Crew Dragon's heat shield, which is located on the bottom of the 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) capsule. Dragging against the air began to slow the vehicle down before the Crew Dragon deployed parachutes that further decelerated its descent. Having hit the ocean, the spacecraft briefly bobbed around in the water until rescue crews waiting nearby hauled it out of the ocean and onto a special boat, referred to as the "Dragon's nest." Final safety checks took place there before the crew disembarked from the capsule and began the journey back to dry land.
You can watch video of the splashdown on YouTube.
While in space, the crew performed 40 science experiments and research, according to the article. "Gillis, a trained violinist, also brought her instrument along for the mission and delivered a rendition of 'Rey's Theme' from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." (Slashdot reader SuperKendall points out that the "Rey's Theme" rendition "was not just the astronaut playing violin in space, but was in conjunction with young adult orchestras around the world.")
SpaceX's COO said the performance "made me tear up. Thank you all for taking this journey."
"Rey's Theme" rendition cooler than summary says (Score:5, Informative)
The "Rey's Theme" rendition was not just the astronaut playing violin in space, but was in conjunction with young adult orchestras around the world! Just the kind of thing to get kids excited about space again. Well worth watching, it's just a few minutes long.
The whole mission had a NASA vibe from decades ago when part of what they were doing was trying to show people how cool space was. They also had a short video where they reached described their favorite experiments they were doing on board.
Really glad they all made it home OK. Even now with space seeming so routine you can't always count on that.
That's not the NASA I remember. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Except for that whole moon thing.
Re: That's not the NASA I remember. (Score:1)
This was a serious flight too (Score:2, Insightful)
NASA took what they were doing seriously. Conspiracy theorists to the contrary, they did not perform stunts for public consumption.
True but that is exactly what SpaceX was doing here. This was not a "stunt". This was a lot of real science and all through the spacewalk the people going outside were spending about the whole time doing suit mobility checks. There was more science being done on-board including more advanced physiology monitoring than has been done before, because there is more advanced medic
What did they learn from . . . (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a brand new suit design built to be more generic and also more flexible... If you can't understand the importance of that you probably should cease making comments showing how little you know about the space industry and the challenges it faces.
It was BTW also the first time four people have been exposed simultaneously to a hard vacuum of space. Which you obviously didn't know either as you called it out specifically as normal and everyday.
Also a lot of the medical stuff they were testing is more adv
Re: (Score:3)
And that’s a good thing. We’re not robots or serfs. It’s smart to show people that their taxpayer dollars are being used on stuff thats both technically important AND cool.
This sp
Re: That's not the NASA I remember. (Score:3)
Re:That's not the NASA I remember. (Score:4, Informative)
Except, of course, for testing brand new EVA suits out of a craft never used for EVA before, conducting a number of scientific experiments, etc...
NASA paid attention because they want things like new EVA suits, the opportunity to go EVA away from the ISS, etc...
Re: (Score:2)
And that’s a good thing. We’re not robots or serfs. It’s smart to show people that their taxpayer dollars are being used on stuff thats both technically important AND cool.
Which explains why NASA doesn't do such things much anymore. They're a government agency, and our government is focused *HARD* on making sure commoners understand that we absolutely ARE seen as robots and serfs. We should serve the oligarchs faithfully, and then fuck off and die once they've used us up. Hope is considered a negative emotion now. It's something to be beaten out of us. Because hopeful people are dangerous when you pull the hope away. Cowed serfs? Not so much.
Re: (Score:1)
>NASA took what they were doing seriously.
You have to be next level retarded to think that getting to space faster and better than everyone else demonstrates anything other than extreme seriousness.
Anyway you're also objectively wrong, as each astronaut did their own stunt on the moon. Golfing (Apollo 14), dropping a hammer vs. feather (Apollo 15), quoting scripture (various), doing unnecessary high leaps to show off for the camera (Apollo 16). So doubly retarded.
And what do you call this? https://www.yo [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Uhhh.... http://www.collectspace.com/ub... [collectspace.com]
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Amazing (Score:2)
Let the era of private exploration of the near vacuum at 400km altitude commence! Truly a historic era.
s/exploration/exploitation (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Luck and some cojones to be beta-testing a launch vehicle that can do a rapid, unscheduled disassembly at any time. All the technology being used is guesswork on top of guesswork. It is a miracle that anyone can launch a rocket and get someone to orbit and down in one piece, with all the technology and issues involved.
Even though it is a private venture, risking one's life and dying from many different ways (cooked by radiation, blown up, being fried from too much oxygen, floating lost in space slowly los
Re: (Score:2)
This shows one thing... NASA needs funding, and NASA needs funding badly.
NASA has funding, it's just being spent on shit like SLS that has $24B already invested and costs two billion dollars a launch. FWIW, I do understand that it's Congress' fault that this is the case, but that actually makes the cry for more funding even worse--Congress obviously believes the purpose of NASA is to move money into the correct pockets, not space exploration, so more funding is just going to be more money moved into the correct pockets, not more mission capability for NASA.
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If NASA isn't doing this job, maybe it is time to create another space agency, where NASA does mainly exploration in tech, while the other agency focuses on just getting live bodies into space and getting them back intact?
Re: s/exploration/exploitation (Score:2)
Our species? Who appointed you our spokesmammal? We "need" to do no such thing, it will never happen anyway. This space delusion is a popular religion among a certain type of nerd, usually the software type, who has zero understanding of the physical world.
Moon landing when? (Score:2)
So when are we going back to the Moon? I want to see the SpaceX spacesuits coping with Moon conditions.
One small step for mankind... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, it was science, but it was also a flex.
When their competitor Boeing is unable to return astronauts from ISS, they have shown off their technology going 3x the distance of their orbit, and also made the record for furthest ever travel by female astronauts. And they have four people on board, one more than our older Apollo missions.
Overall it was a success. And in the face of older, bureaucratic incumbents who cannot do anything proper anymore. Hope this becomes a nice kick in the rear to restart our collaborative space progress. Yes, I can take one single company at least, but I would pretty much this inspiring others as well.
Hubble? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes I believe so. There have been talks about that with NASA about a potential mission, but so far as I know there are no current plans for a Hubble refurbishment. But this EVA and the new suits are a step towards that possibility some day.