A billionaire kicked off the first private spacewalk Thursday, teaming up with SpaceX on the daring endeavor hundreds of miles above Earth. Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew waited until their capsule was depressurized before popping open the hatch. Isaacman was to be the first one out, aiming to join a small elite group of spacewalkers who until now had included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
A Private Spacewalk: A Historic Milestone
The historic action is expected to start at 5:58 a.m. ET on Thursday (Sept. 12). The pioneering extravehicular activity (EVA) will be conducted by Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, two members of the four-person Polaris Dawn mission, which launched to Earth orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday morning (Sept. 10).
The main goal of the spacewalk is to test the new SpaceX suits, which the company developed in house and aims to use on a variety of missions to Earth orbit and beyond. The spacewalk will last around two hours from start to finish, SpaceX and Polaris Dawn representatives have said. That timing runs from the initial venting of the mission's Crew Dragon capsule to its repressurization.
Testing the Limits of Space Exploration
Crew Dragon doesn't have an airlock, so its entire interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space during the EVA. That means all four crewmembers — Isaacman, Gillis, Scott "Kidd" Poteet and Anna Menon — will don their new SpaceX EVA suits. Only Isaacman and Gillis will exit the capsule, however. They'll do so sequentially, not simultaneously, and each will remain outside for 15 to 20 minutes, Isaacman said during a prelaunch press briefing on Aug. 26. And both of them plan to maintain contact with Crew Dragon — its newly installed "Skywalker" handrails, for example — at all times during the EVA.
"We're just not going to be just floating around," Isaacman said.
A Risk-Filled Mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A tech billionaire performed the first private spacewalk hundreds of miles above Earth on Thursday, a high-risk endeavor reserved for professional astronauts — until now. Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company’s brand new spacesuits on his chartered flight. The daring spacewalk also saw SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis going out once Isaacman was safely back inside. This spacewalk was simple and quick — less than two hours — compared with the drawn-out affairs conducted by NASA. Astronauts at the International Space Station often need to move across the sprawling complex for repairs, always traveling in pairs and lugging gear. Station spacewalks can last seven to eight hours.
Pushing the Boundaries of Space Exploration
The commercial spacewalk was the main focus of the five-day flight financed by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, and the culmination of years of development geared toward settling Mars and other planets. All four on board donned the new spacewalking suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum. They launched on Tuesday from Florida, rocketing farther from Earth than anyone since NASA’s moonwalkers. The orbit was reduced by half — to 460 miles (740 kilometers) — for the spacewalk.
This first spacewalking test involved more stretching than walking. Isaacman kept a hand or foot attached to it the whole time as he flexed his arms and legs to see how the new spacesuit held up. The hatch sported a walker-like structure for extra support. After about 15 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis to go through the same motions. Gillis bobbed up and down in weightlessness, no higher than her knees out of the capsule, as she twisted her arms and sent reports back to Mission Control.
Each had 12-foot (3.6-meter) tethers but did not unfurl them or dangle at the end unlike what happens at the space station, where astronauts routinely float out at a much lower orbit.
A New Era of Private Space Exploration
More and more wealthy passengers are plunking down huge sums for rides aboard private rockets to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Other have spent tens of millions to stay in space for days or even weeks. Space experts and risk analysts say it’s inevitable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalking, deemed one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight after launch and reentry but also the most soul-stirring.
This operation was planned down to the minute with little room for error. Trying out new spacesuits from a spacecraft new to spacewalking added to the risk. So did the fact that the entire capsule was exposed to the vacuum of space.
A Glimpse into the Future of Space Travel
There were a few glitches. Isaacman had to manually pull the hatch open instead of pushing a button on board. Before heading out, Gillis reported seeing bulges in the hatch seal. Scott “Kidd" Poteet, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon stayed strapped to their seats to monitor from inside. All four underwent intensive training before the trip. Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of the Shift4 credit card-processing company, has declined to disclose how much he invested in the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he’s dubbed Polaris; this one was called Polaris Dawn. For SpaceX’s inaugural private flight in 2021, he took up contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Until Thursday, only 263 people had conducted a spacewalk, representing 12 countries. The Soviet Union’s Alexei Leonov kicked it off in 1965, followed a few months later by NASA’s Ed White.
Looking Ahead
This event marks a significant turning point in the history of space exploration. It demonstrates the increasing role of private companies in driving advancements in space technology and making space travel accessible to a wider audience. As the private space industry continues to mature, we can expect to see even more innovative and daring missions like the Polaris Dawn mission, pushing the boundaries of what's possible and paving the way for a future where space exploration is no longer solely the domain of government agencies.
