Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman steps out of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule during a spacewalk on September 12, 2024.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation
SpaceX completed its first spacewalk early Thursday morning, a historic first for a company.
The big event for the private Polaris Dawn mission went smoothly as two crew members – Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis – stepped out of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule “Resilience”. It was the first spacewalk by civilians rather than government astronauts.
“We all have a lot of work to do back home, but from here on out, Earth does look like a perfect world,” Isaac Mann, the mission’s donor and commander, said after emerging from the spacecraft.
SpaceX sees spacewalks, also known as extravehicular activities, or EVA, as an important milestone in its goal of sending humans to other planets.
SpaceX has spent more than two years developing suits that can protect astronauts in the harsh environment of space, along with the Polaris Program, which is run by Isaacman, the billionaire founder of payments company Shift4. The mission, which was also the company’s first, was represented by Mission Specialist Gillis and Medical Officer Anna Menon.
The Polaris Dawn event lasted about two hours in total, with all four crew members exposed to the vacuum of space after the spacecraft hatch opened. Isaacman and Gillis each spent about seven minutes outside the capsule, focusing on testing the suit’s maneuverability.
SpaceX launched the mission on Tuesday. In addition to its spacewalk, Polaris Dawn has reached an orbit more than 1,400 kilometers above Earth – the furthest distance humans have traveled in space since the Apollo program – and is conducting approximately 40 scientific research experiments and providing St. Jude raises funds for Children’s Research Hospital.
Dawn of the North Star cast and crew (from left): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation
Isaacman, who will lead the Inspiration4 mission into space for the first time in 2021, said he is leading the Polaris program in an effort to push the boundaries of private space flight.
“That’s the inspirational aspect…anything that’s different from what we’ve seen in the past 20 or 30 years gets people excited and they think, ‘Well, if this is what I’m seeing today, I wonder what’s going to happen. What’s going to look like tomorrow is a year from now,” Isaacman told CNBC before the mission.
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