Polaris Dawn crew member describes the dramatic ride home

A crew member of SpaceX’s recent Polaris Dawn mission has described what it was like aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and hurtled toward Earth during the crew’s high-speed homecoming last weekend.

Polaris Dawn’s Scott Poteet was responding to a stunning photo captured from the International Space Station (ISS) by NASA astronaut Don Pettit, which showed the Crew Dragon during its rapid descent at the end of a historic five-day mission that involved the first privately funded spacewalk.

“The plasma was insanely bright,” Poteet wrote in a social media post shared on Tuesday. “Began as a purple/pink hue and slowly progressed into bright flickering flames. Lasted throughout blackout for a solid 8 min. Image I’ll never forget.”

The plasma occurs as temperatures around the vehicle rise to such a level that the air molecules begin to break apart. This produces an electrically charged plasma around the spacecraft, which the spacecraft’s occupants can see through the windows (if they dare open their eyes during the thrilling roller coaster ride).

Responding to Poteet, another space station inhabitant, Matthew Dominick, described how special it felt to be able to see the Crew Dragon from the ISS.

“It was awesome to be scanning the horizon for awhile from our spacecraft looking for another spacecraft and then to be able to call ‘visual’ on your spacecraft streaking through the atmosphere,” Dominick wrote in his post. “We all saw you unaided. We were traveling SE from about Arkansas to Florida while you were traveling NE from the Yucatán Peninsula to Florida. 90 degree merge right to left from our perspective. We are guessing you were ‘blind’ with the plasma streaking past your windows.”

Pettit captured his astonishing Crew Dragon photograph from the Cupola, a seven-window module that offers panoramic views of Earth and beyond. “In addition to the multi-colored entry trail over Florida, the basic cone shape of the Dragon capsule can be seen,” said Pettit, who grabbed the shot using a Nikon Z9 camera with a 200mm lens.