CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A billionaire spacewalker from the Lehigh Valley returned to Earth with his crew Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.
SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying two SpaceX engineers, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, chief executive officer and founder of the Shift4 credit card-processing company in Upper Saucon Township
They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles following Tuesday’s liftoff.
“We are mission complete.”Jared Isaacman radio transmission upon splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico
Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th.
Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.
“We are mission complete,” Isaacman radioed as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team. Within an hour, all four were out of their spacecraft, pumping their fists with joy as they emerged onto the ship's deck.
It was the first time SpaceX aimed for a splashdown near the Dry Tortugas, a cluster of islands 70 miles west of Key West. To celebrate the new location, SpaceX employees brought a big, green turtle balloon to Mission Control at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The company usually targets closer to the Florida coast, but two weeks of poor weather forecasts prompted SpaceX to look elsewhere.
During Thursday's commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour.
Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.
The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air.
Even SpaceX's Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.
SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.
This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star.
He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the Shift4 founder shared the cost with SpaceX.
Isaacman didn't divulge how much he spent.
Isaacman has also made a name for himself with Lehigh Valley philanthropic causes.
His donation to St. Luke's University Health Network led to the opening of the Isaacman Family Children's Emergency Room at St. Luke's Children's Hospital in Fountain Hill.
He also was instrumental in the new Da Vinci Science Center in Center City Allentown, where the Isaacman Next Generation Science Institute bears his name.