Washington DC, September 13:
According to the US space agency, astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore will hold a press conference and make a call to Earth from the International Space Station while in low Earth orbit. At 2:15 p.m. EDT (local time) on September 13, the newsroom at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston will receive the space call.
Arriving at the space station on June 6, the two had departed on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5, marking its first crewed trip.
Starliner returned to Earth without its crew on September 6, following more than three months in space, following a decision to do so. It landed without incident in New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor.
Before the crewless Starliner spacecraft reentered Earth, astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore communicated their gratitude to flight controllers for the support they had received from the crews.
It is time to return Calypso to his home, you folks. You are not alone; we will support you. In the radio message, Sunita Williams referred to the spaceship by her nickname and urged listeners to return it to Earth.
Along with two other crew members on NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission, the two astronauts will return home in February 2025 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. They will remain on the international space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew.
However, history was made when the crew of the Polaris Dawn, a privately chartered spacecraft headed by Elon Musk, accomplished the first commercial spacewalk.
Ascending into an elliptical orbit 190 x 700 km above the Earth, the crew donned their freshly-designed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits and embarked on their nearly two-hour operation at 3:12 a.m. EDT.As a developmental effort aimed at advancing human spaceflight, the Polaris effort reached a major milestone with the spacewalk.
The crew of Polaris Dawn made history when they opened the hatch and entered space's vacuum all at once, the corporation announced.
Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis and Commander Jared Isaacman exited the vehicle and ran a battery of tests meant to assess the suit's thermal systems, mobility, and the Dragon mobility aid "Skywalker" for around twenty minutes before going back to the cabin and shutting the hatch.
Isaacman and Gillis were accompanied by Scott "Kidd" Poteet, the mission pilot, and Anna Menon, the mission specialist and medical officer, who provided support and oversight of critical support systems for the whole operation.
Sealing the hatch allowed for the re-pressurization of Dragon and the subsequent confirmation of cabin pressure and oxygen levels.
Billionaire and mission benefactor Isaacman remarked on his experience and said, "SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world."
SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew received well wishes from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who expressed them in a statement on X. "Congratulations @PolarisProgram and @SpaceX on the first commercial spacewalk in history!" "Nelson wrote," the author said.
"Today's success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and @NASA's long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy." While SpaceX has been mum on the specifics of the Polaris Dawn mission's impending splashdown off Florida's coast, the landing itself is still a mystery.
