In a historic achievement for private space exploration, billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis have successfully completed the inaugural private spacewalk. This landmark event, part of the Polaris Dawn mission, marked a significant milestone in the use of commercial space technologies.
In the early hours of a Thursday morning, the two astronauts ventured out of their spacecraft, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, which does not have a traditional airlock. The method, reminiscent of early spacewalk techniques used in the 1960s by NASA and Soviet astronauts, involved depressurizing the entire cabin to allow for egress and reentry.
Isaacman, who is leading the mission, not only tested the mobility of the newly developed spacesuit, but also demonstrated the potential of commercial space ventures beyond government projects. The operation began significantly later than expected, but it went smoothly and without complications.
After Isaacman’s reentry, Sarah Gillis took her turn to navigate the vacuum of space, performing similar mobility tests. Their spacewalk, though brief, was a crucial part of a larger mission to advance space technologies with aspirations toward eventual colonization of Mars.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hailed the spacewalk as a monumental step for the burgeoning commercial space sector, in line with NASA’s goals of fostering a robust U.S. space economy.
The success of this mission not only demonstrates the capabilities of non-governmental space activities, but also lays the groundwork for future initiatives, including potential servicing missions for satellites and telescopes such as Hubble.
As the Crew Dragon capsule orbited Earth, astronauts aboard conducted numerous experiments to understand the effects of weightlessness and radiation on the human body, as well as testing new communications technologies.
This pioneering spacewalk underscores a paradigm shift in space exploration, highlighting the growing role of private entities in fields once dominated by national space agencies.
