SpaceX crew lands safely after first commercial spacewalk

Four astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, ending their five-day-long spaceflight in the Polaris Dawn. The mission made history after the crew went higher than any flight since the Apollo program, reaching about 875 miles. They also tested SpaceX’s new space suits in the first-ever commercial space walk and performed 36 experiments.

What's this about a concert from space? Sarah Gillis was one of two mission specialists onboard. She is a Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX. She has worked preparing astronauts for missions at SpaceX, NASA, and for Inspiration4. She’s also a trained violinist and while onboard the Polaris Dawn, Gillis performed Rey’s Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The astronauts broadcasted the performance back to Earth to test Starlink's potential for providing high-speed internet to astronauts.

Dig deeper: Read Heather Frank’s report in Beginnings on why the United States is going back to the moon.