First private spacewalk
(Video: SpaceX)
For the first time in history, two private astronauts, who did not undergo NASA’s lengthy astronaut training, embarked on a short spacewalk after exiting the Dragon spacecraft.
The spacewalk included Polaris mission commander Jared Isaacman, 41, a billionaire and pilot who is funding the mission, and Sarah Gillis, 30, a senior engineer at SpaceX.
At approximately 10:50 a.m. UTC, Isaacman exited the spacecraft, which was orbiting about 435 miles above Earth between Australia and Antarctica. "Not a bad view," Isaacman told SpaceX’s control room. "From here, Earth definitely looks like a perfect world."
A few minutes later, he returned to the spacecraft and secured his position. At 11:05 a.m. UTC, Gillis stepped out for her brief spacewalk, with the spacecraft then at an altitude of about 354 miles above Earth. She returned to the craft shortly afterward.
The excitement was palpable both in the spacecraft and SpaceX’s control room during the historic spacewalk. Two other astronauts remained inside, pilot Scott Poteet, 50, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and Anna Menon, 38, another senior SpaceX engineer.
After multiple delays, partly due to weather conditions, SpaceX launched the Polaris mission on Tuesday. A few hours after launch, the spacecraft reached an altitude of around 870 miles above Earth, the farthest humans have been from Earth since the Apollo program ended in 1972. For comparison, the International Space Station orbits at about 250 miles above Earth.
During the five-day mission, the crew is conducting a series of scientific experiments, including studying the effects of cosmic radiation and the vacuum of space on the human body.
Floating over Earth
(Video: SpaceX)
The spacecraft is expected to stay near the edge of the Van Allen radiation belts, which shield Earth from cosmic radiation. The mission is scheduled to conclude with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.
In addition to the spacewalk, another record was set this week, with 19 people currently in space. The Soyuz MS-26 mission, carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut, docked at the International Space Station, bringing the station’s crew to 12. Additionally, three Chinese astronauts are aboard the Chinese space station, along with the four private astronauts from the Polaris mission.