Polaris Dawn Crew Achieves Historic First Commercial Spacewalk
2min read As part of the "Polaris Dawn" mission launched two days ago, four crew members have just completed the world's first commercial spacewalk today. On September 10, at 17:23 Beijing time, the Falcon 9 rocket executing the "Polaris Dawn" mission took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending four crew members into space: billionaire Jared Isaacman, SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, and pilot Scott Poteet.
The "Polaris Dawn" mission is one of the most ambitious space tourism endeavors in history, with the crew set to achieve several milestones within five days, including the first-ever privately funded human spacewalk. Today, all four crew members were exposed to space, but only Isaacman and Gillis exited the SpaceX capsule as planned.
Using a "Skywalker" ladder and a 12-foot-long tether, Isaacman first stepped out of the capsule and stayed outside for over ten minutes. Gillis followed, also spending over ten minutes outside to test the performance of SpaceX's spacesuits. Besides ensuring the spacesuits can keep astronauts alive in harsh environments, the crew also had to complete another crucial milestone of the spacewalk: closing the spacecraft's hatch. SpaceX has confirmed that after Gillis re-entered the spacecraft, the hatch was safely closed and the capsule began repressurizing.
In the coming years, Isaacman hopes to conduct a second "Polaris Dawn" mission using SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, potentially to enhance NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The "Polaris Dawn" mission plans to launch three times, with the third mission possibly marking the first crewed flight of SpaceX's Starship. If Isaacman and Elon Musk succeed, it could signal the beginning of a more ambitious era of human spaceflight.
At 6 AM Eastern Time on the 12th (18:00 Beijing time), two members of the "Polaris Dawn" mission began performing the first commercial spacewalk by non-professional astronauts globally. Unlike previous spacewalks where astronauts would float significant distances from the International Space Station, Isaacman and Gillis only had to exit the Crew Dragon capsule to complete the spacewalk. They took turns stepping outside, each spending 15 to 20 minutes in space while always keeping one hand or foot on a ladder-like support structure on the spacecraft's outer wall. A 3.6-meter tether kept them connected to the capsule the entire time.
The other two crew members, Poteet and Menon, stayed inside the capsule, monitoring the mission. Unlike larger spacecraft, the Crew Dragon capsule does not have an airlock, meaning the entire capsule was depressurized once the hatch was opened. Poteet and Menon wore SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity suits during the mission, even though they remained inside. The entire spacewalk mission was estimated to take less than two hours.
Isaacman and his team entered space on September 10 aboard the Crew Dragon capsule, reaching a peak altitude of about 1,400 kilometers above Earth before descending to an altitude of about 700 kilometers to perform the spacewalk. The International Space Station orbits at around 400 kilometers above Earth. None of the four crew members are professional astronauts. Isaacman is the founder and CEO of payment services company Shift4 Payments, Poteet is a retired fighter pilot, and Menon and Gillis are SpaceX engineers.
Since Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov's first spacewalk in 1965, 263 people have performed spacewalks, all of them professional astronauts. Isaacman has declined to reveal the cost of this space mission. In September 2021, he flew to space on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, spending about three days orbiting Earth. This mission was part of SpaceX's all-civilian "space tourism" endeavor. SpaceX is the first private company to attempt a commercial spacewalk mission.