SpaceX: First commercial spacewalk completed on Polaris Dawn mission
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 7:20 am
American billionaire Jared Isaacman was the first crew member to leave a space capsule
A crew of four civilians aboard SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission have opened the hatch of their capsule and made history as the first group of non-government astronauts to perform a spacewalk.
SpaceX streamed the event live on X (formerly Twitter) — also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA) — which began shortly after 7 a.m. ET.
SpaceX’s entire Crew Dragon vehicle , which propels and protects the crew, has been depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space — a dangerous and historic milestone in the Polaris Dawn crew’s five-day journey through Earth orbit. The mission has already set records, traveling farther into space than any human has done since NASA’s Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago.
The crew — which includes Jared Isaacman, CEO of rcs database Payments and a backer of Polaris Dawn; his close friend and former U.S. Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis — have been preparing for the spacewalk since the flight began at 6:23 a.m. ET on Tuesday (11).
The team underwent a process known as “pre-breathing,” a step designed to purge nitrogen from their blood to prevent the gas from forming bubbles — a potentially lethal condition — as they experience the vacuum of space.
Isaacman was the first to exit the capsule, shortly before 8 am (Brasília time).
He climbed onto a mobility aid — essentially a ladder that SpaceX has dubbed a “skywalker” — to venture into the endless void and take in the view .
“At home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here it feels like a perfect world,” Isaacman said.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sept. 10.
Gillis and Isaacman were the only two crew members to actually exit the spacecraft, and they did so for a combined total of about 20 minutes.
Gillis left the capsule for about 10 minutes after Isaacman returned to his seat. She spent her time outside fidgeting in her spacesuit — as expected — to help test her mobility.
Developing spacesuits that fit and function more like regular clothing, rather than the bulky and highly restrictive white suits used on spacewalks of the past, is a key goal for SpaceX.
Although the crew reached a maximum altitude of more than 1,400 kilometers, the spacewalk took place while the vehicle was traveling between 190 and 700 kilometers above Earth. Watch the video below.
A crew of four civilians aboard SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission have opened the hatch of their capsule and made history as the first group of non-government astronauts to perform a spacewalk.
SpaceX streamed the event live on X (formerly Twitter) — also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA) — which began shortly after 7 a.m. ET.
SpaceX’s entire Crew Dragon vehicle , which propels and protects the crew, has been depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space — a dangerous and historic milestone in the Polaris Dawn crew’s five-day journey through Earth orbit. The mission has already set records, traveling farther into space than any human has done since NASA’s Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago.
The crew — which includes Jared Isaacman, CEO of rcs database Payments and a backer of Polaris Dawn; his close friend and former U.S. Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis — have been preparing for the spacewalk since the flight began at 6:23 a.m. ET on Tuesday (11).
The team underwent a process known as “pre-breathing,” a step designed to purge nitrogen from their blood to prevent the gas from forming bubbles — a potentially lethal condition — as they experience the vacuum of space.
Isaacman was the first to exit the capsule, shortly before 8 am (Brasília time).
He climbed onto a mobility aid — essentially a ladder that SpaceX has dubbed a “skywalker” — to venture into the endless void and take in the view .
“At home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here it feels like a perfect world,” Isaacman said.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sept. 10.
Gillis and Isaacman were the only two crew members to actually exit the spacecraft, and they did so for a combined total of about 20 minutes.
Gillis left the capsule for about 10 minutes after Isaacman returned to his seat. She spent her time outside fidgeting in her spacesuit — as expected — to help test her mobility.
Developing spacesuits that fit and function more like regular clothing, rather than the bulky and highly restrictive white suits used on spacewalks of the past, is a key goal for SpaceX.
Although the crew reached a maximum altitude of more than 1,400 kilometers, the spacewalk took place while the vehicle was traveling between 190 and 700 kilometers above Earth. Watch the video below.