SpaceX’s private Polaris Dawn astronauts beam photos to Earth using Starlink satellites

The private Polaris Dawn astronauts keep notching milestones in Earth orbit.

The four-person Polaris Dawn mission launched aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule early Tuesday morning (Sept. 10). Later that day, the astronauts got farther from Earth — 870 miles (1,400.7 kilometers) — than any crewed mission since the Apollo era.

Polaris Dawn next pulled off the first-ever private spacewalk on Thursday (Sept. 12), then followed up that historic achievement with one in the communications sphere— posting on X from orbit for the first time using SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites.

“Hello Earth — We are so grateful for all the support! Please enjoy two recent photos from our mission and stay tuned for our next message. Sent to you from space over a beam of Starlink laser light — Crew of Polaris Dawn,” reads the X post, which was published on Thursday afternoon by the Polaris Program, a three-mission effort organized and funded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman.

One of the two photos shows the four Polaris Dawn astronauts — commander Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — inside their capsule, which is named Resilience. The second is a beauty shot of Earth’s brilliant blue limb against the blackness of space.

Related: SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform historic 1st private spacewalk in orbit (video)

Polaris Dawn is a free flyer; unlike the astronaut missions that SpaceX conducts for NASA, it won’t link up with the International Space Station. Polaris Dawn is expected to last about five days, meaning it will likely come back to Earth sometime this weekend.

The pioneering private flight is the second orbital jaunt for Isaacman, who also funded and commanded the four-person Inspiration4 mission in September 2021.

And Isaacman has two more SpaceX missions lined up — the second and third flights in the Polaris Program. Not much is known about either one at this point, though Isaacman has said that Polaris’ Flight 3 will be the first crewed mission of Starship, the giant rocket that SpaceX is developing to help humanity settle the moon and Mars.