Polaris crew back on earth after historic spacewalk mission

FLORIDA: SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew has returned to Earth after completing the first private spacewalk. At 1.07 pm IST on Sunday, the Crew 'Dragon' spacecraft on the mission landed (splash down) in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida.

At a speed of 11,265 kilometres per hour, the probe survived the heat of 1,900 degrees Celsius and returned to the Earth's atmosphere. The space suit developed by SpaceX was also successful.

The members of the mission launched on the 10th of this month were Jared Isaacman (American entrepreneur), Sarah Gillis (SpaceX engineer), Scott 'Kidd' Poteet (former US Air Force pilot) and Anna Menon (SpaceX engineer). The mission was sponsored by millionaire Jared Isaacman.

• Jared and Sarah walked in space 700 km from the altitude of Earth. First private individuals to own the feat.
• Spacecraft reached a distance of 1,400.7 km from Earth. It was the first time since NASA's Apollo mission in 1972 that a crewed spacecraft had reached such a high altitude.
• The crew did 40 successful experiments, including SpaceX's Starlink Internet laser communication technology.