A crew began the first-ever private spacewalk by non-professional astronauts aboard a SpaceX spacecraft on Thursday, marking a new milestone in commercial space exploration.
The spacewalk officially began when oxygen began flowing into the astronauts’ suits, SpaceX announced during a live broadcast of the event.
The Polaris Dawn mission was launched by billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, who will be one of two passengers to briefly venture outside the spacecraft when the capsule’s hatch opens. The second will be Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX employee.
The other two members of the mission, pilot Scott Poteet and fellow SpaceX employee Anna Menon, will remain aboard the Dragon capsule to ensure everything goes as planned.
The ship is not equipped with an airlock, however, the entire crew will be exposed to the vacuum of space once the hatch is opened.
The aim of the operation is to test the very first suits of Elon Musk’s company, intended for space, white and with a futuristic look.
The spacewalk is carried out at an altitude of about 700 km above Earth — the International Space Station (ISS) operates at an altitude of about 400 km.
Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis are scheduled to go out in turns, for 15 to 20 minutes each.
They will not float untethered in space, but will use a structure called Skywalker, placed on the front of the capsule and composed of bars, to hold on and perform movements.
“It’s going to feel a little bit like we’re dancing,” Jared Isaacman explained at a press conference last month.
The suits are connected by cords to the ship to supply them with oxygen in particular.
The spacewalk is expected to last about two hours — much less than the spacewalks of government agency astronauts outside the ISS, where they also perform highly technical tasks.
The four crew members underwent more than two years of training to prepare for this historic mission.
Risk
Still, given the altitude and the circumstances, “the risk is certainly not zero,” former NASA chief Sean O’Keefe told AFP. “And it’s certainly higher than anything that’s been done by the commercial sector to date.”
Since the first so-called “extra-vehicular” spacewalk in 1965, all have so far been carried out by professional astronauts.
The suits of the four adventurers are derived from those already used by SpaceX inside its ships and have been improved to be able to withstand extreme temperatures or improve their mobility.
They are also equipped with a camera, and information on the pressure, temperature and humidity of the suit is directly displayed in the helmet.
SpaceX hopes to be able to produce “millions” of them, in order to enable humanity to become a multi-planetary species – its stated goal.
“Someday someone might wear a version of this on Mars,” so it’s “a great honor” to test them, said Jared Isaacman, CEO of financial firm Shift4.
Commercial exploration
The mission took off Tuesday from Florida for about five days. On its first day, the capsule ventured up to 1,400 km (900 miles) above the ground, further than any crew since the Apollo lunar missions more than half a century ago.
Beyond their spacewalk, the crew will also test satellite laser communications between the spacecraft and the vast Starlink satellite constellation.
They must also carry out around forty scientific experiments.
Polaris Dawn marks a new milestone in commercial space exploration, with its commander Jared Isaacman championing the value of private investment to accelerate the conquest of the cosmos.
Polaris Dawn inaugurates the Polaris program, announced two and a half years ago and which is to include three missions.
After a second similar to the one currently underway, the third should be the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket, currently in development and intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.