Sept. 12, two private astronauts, Mission Commander Jared Isaacman and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, conducted the first commercial spacewalk. This spacewalk will also test the new SpaceX Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuits for further space-faring missions .

In an exclusive interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, which will air on NBC Nightly News on Tuesday, the crew — billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — described the emotional side of their five-day journey.

The Polaris Dawn crew safely returned to Earth Sunday morning.. The Dragon capsule carrying the mission’s four astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico around 3:30AM ET.

On Tuesday, September 10, 2024, the first-ever private spacewalk was conducted. With Starlink, a laser-based communications system, Falcon 9 launched Polaris Dawn at 5:23 a.m. EST. The spacecraft was launched to a low orbit at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Splashdown northwest of Key West, Florida, will close out a mission highlighted by the first non-government civilian spacewalk.

Back from space just over 48 hours, the crew of Polaris Dawn took to X (formerly Twitter) to describe what the entire experience felt like.