Vox

The mission tested lots of new technology for future, longer missions.

SpaceX’s current mission is supposed to be the first of three Polaris missions, all funded by Isaacman and SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace company.

The goal of the Polaris mission series is to help SpaceX develop the skills and technology needed to achieve its longer term goals of sending humans to Mars. The company hoped this first mission would be a useful test of the spacecraft and its instruments’ ability to survive the extreme conditions of space, particularly as it passes through the Van Allen radiation belts, regions in space that encircle the planet and are highly radioactive. They were detected on the first US space mission in 1958, and their highly charged, energetic particles can damage spacecraft instruments.

The crew traveled through the Van Allen belts on their way to the furthest point in their journey, and, so far, the tech aboard the capsule — and the astronauts — seem to have withstood that radiation.