Billionaire splashes down after splashing out for private spacewalk

The civilian crew on SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission returned to Earth yesterday after a historic five days in orbit that took them higher than anyone since Nasa's trips to the moon more than half a century ago.

- Ian Sample

The Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas islands shortly after 3.37am local time (8.37am BST) carrying the billionaire tech entrepreneur and mission funder Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former air force fighter pilot.

"We are mission complete," Isaacman said as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting recovery.

The crew performed the first private spacewalk while soaring nearly 460 miles above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and the Hubble space telescope.

Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles after Tuesday's liftoff.

Isaacman became the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union achieved the first in 1965, and SpaceX's Sarah Gillis became the 265th. Previously, all spacewalks had been made by professional astronauts.