SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Mission Makes History with First Private Spacewalk

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission achieves a groundbreaking milestone with the first-ever private spacewalk, marking a new chapter in commercial space exploration.

NASA has praised the recent achievement of a pair of groundbreaking astronauts who, as private civilians, have made history by performing a spacewalk. It is being hailed as “a significant advance” for the commercial space sector.

On Tuesday morning, the SpaceX Polaris Dawn expedition set off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center under the guidance of Jared Isaacman, a billionaire in fintech. The mission is an attempt to travel further into space than any person has gone in 50 years – since NASA’s Apollo program during the 1970s.

The crew of four aboard the Dragon spacecraft initiated their spacewalk, known as an “extravehicular activity,” once they reached an altitude of 700 kilometers (434 miles) and began receiving pure oxygen into their suits on Thursday morning.

Isaacman soon thereafter opened the hatch and ascended through it using the handholds and footholds of a structure called “Skywalker”, while taking in an awe-inspiring sight of Earth unveiling beneath him.

“He exclaimed that it was stunning,” he informed the mission control in California, where teams cheered at crucial milestones.

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In the beginning, it was overlooked by most members of the industry, but now it has become a dominant force. In fact, in 2020 it surpassed aviation titan Boeing by providing NASA with transportation to and from the International Space Station.

Before opening the hatch, the crew followed a “prebreathe” protocol to eliminate nitrogen from their blood in order to avoid decompression sickness. Thereafter, the cabin pressure was gradually reduced until it matched that of outer space’s vacuum.

Isaacman, along with his crewmate Sarah Gillis who is a SpaceX engineer, tried out mobility tests on the company’s latest suits that have advanced features such as heads-up displays and enhanced joint flexibility. They spent only several minutes before heading back inside.

After the cabin re-pressurisation, the spacewalk came to an end after one hour and 46 minutes.

Although a first for the commercial sector, the spacewalk lacked the audacious feats of the early days in space.

In the early days of space exploration, astronauts such as Alexei Leonov from the Soviet Union relied on tethers to move away from their spacecrafts. Later, only a few elite Space Shuttle astronauts went further by utilizing jetpacks which allowed them complete freedom in flight without any attachment.