Image: In this image made from a SpaceX video, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, centre, gets out of the capsule upon his return to Earth. Pic: AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew returned to Earth on Sunday, completing a five-day space mission that took them farther from the planet than any human has traveled since NASA’s moon missions. The SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near the Dry Tortugas, west of Florida’s Key West, in the predawn darkness, marking the end of their historic journey.

Isaacman, along with two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot, made history by performing the first private spacewalk. The team orbited nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth, exceeding the altitudes of both the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers), following their launch on Tuesday.

Isaacman became the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the Soviet Union achieved the first in 1965, while SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis became the 265th. Before this mission, spacewalks had only been carried out by professional astronauts.

“We are mission complete,” Isaacman declared as the capsule bobbed in the Gulf of Mexico, signaling the successful conclusion of the mission. Within an hour, all four crew members were safely out of the spacecraft, celebrating with fist pumps as they stepped onto the recovery ship.

This was the first time SpaceX had targeted a splashdown near the Dry Tortugas, a small group of islands 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Key West. To mark the occasion, SpaceX employees brought a giant green turtle balloon to Mission Control in Hawthorne, California. Normally, SpaceX aims for splashdowns closer to the Florida coast, but poor weather forecasts over the past two weeks pushed the company to choose this new location.

The mission’s highlight came on Thursday when Isaacman and Gillis performed a commercial spacewalk, briefly exiting the Dragon capsule. Isaacman emerged up to his waist to test SpaceX’s new spacesuit, followed by Gillis, who stepped out to flex her arms and legs in zero gravity. The spacewalk lasted under two hours, significantly shorter than the typical walks performed at the International Space Station. Much of the time was spent depressurizing and repressurizing the capsule’s cabin. The two remaining crew members, SpaceX’s Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, remained strapped inside the capsule in spacesuits throughout the walk.

This mission, named Polaris Dawn, is part of Isaacman’s Polaris program, which he is personally funding to push the boundaries of private space exploration. Isaacman, founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company, financed the trip along with SpaceX. While the exact cost remains undisclosed, this is Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX. His first was in 2021, where he flew alongside contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor, raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

SpaceX considers this mission a significant step toward advancing spacesuit technology for longer spaceflights, including potential missions to Mars. Isaacman still has two more flights planned under the Polaris program, promising more groundbreaking moments in the evolving frontier of private space travel.