SpaceX makes history with world’s 1st private spacewalk 458 miles above Earth

SpaceX has made history as the Polaris Dawn crew successfully performed its first commercial spacewalk at an altitude of 458 miles above the Earth on Thursday, September 12.

During the extravehicular activity (EVA), the mission commander Jared Isaacman first exited the Dragon spacecraft, floating in the vacuum of space.

“Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said after viewing the blue world from the spacecraft.

After a few minutes, he re-entered the capsule, and mission specialist Sarah Gillis then exited for the spacewalk. The astronauts performed a series of mobility tests, demonstrating the capabilities of the new spacesuits.

They used the SpaceX Skywalker mobility platform to stay safe and latch themselves.

The mission control watched with bated breath the entire process.

The entire spacewalk lasted roughly 20 minutes, and the Dragon front hatch was closed. The whole process, including preparing the capsule for spacewalk, took about two hours.

Five-day mission

This five-day mission was launched on Tuesday, September 10. SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.

Apart from Isaacman and Gillis, the mission includes pilot Kitt Poteet and mission specialist Anna Menon.

This is the first of three human spaceflights under the Polaris Program with SpaceX. The Polaris Dawn mission is funded by American billionaire Isaacman. However, the exact mission cost has not been disclosed by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX.

Before the spacewalk, the crew performed various tasks, including a pre-breathe process, mobility tests and inspections, and pressurization checkouts. They also conducted a final suit leak check before heading out for the brief spacewalk.

The astronauts relied on SpaceX’s innovative new EVA spacesuits for this excursion, which are designed to withstand the harsh vacuum of space.

The Dragon doesn’t have an airlock, so the whole cabin was depressurized. For the spacewalk, the entire cabin was depressurized, and they relied solely on oxygen provided by their spacesuits. This means that the entire crew was exposed to the vacuum of space.

After the spacewalk, the spacecraft repressurization process began. It took roughly 50 minutes and involved two stages: initially raising the pressure with nitrogen, followed by adding a mixture of oxygen.

40 experiments planned

Throughout the spacewalk process, the other two flight members monitored the vital support systems.

The mission is expected to conduct 40 scientific experiments during the entire flight. Interestingly, the modified Dragon orbited Earth in an elliptical path, reaching a minimum altitude of 190 km and a maximum altitude of 1,400 km. This was the farthest distance traveled by humans since the Apollo missions.

On its sixth-day journey, the Dragon capsule will perform deorbit burns to return to Earth.

According to Reuters , only government astronauts have done spacewalks before.

International Space Station, after its formation in 2000, has witnessed 270 spacewalks outside it. In contrast, Chinese astronauts have performed 16 spacewalks on the new Tiangong space station.

Polaris Dawn is nevertheless a monumental step forward for space exploration.