In a historic achievement for commercial spaceflight, SpaceX successfully conducted the world’s first private spacewalk on Thursday. Astronauts Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis ventured outside the Crew Dragon spacecraft while in orbit around Earth, marking a significant milestone for private space exploration.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, 41, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, became the first non-government individuals to perform a spacewalk, tethered to their spacecraft. The spacewalk, streamed live on SpaceX’s website, showcased their movements against the backdrop of Earth, which appeared as a half-lit sphere 700 kilometers below.
“I’ve got a lot of work back home, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said, reflecting on the view from space.
The spacewalk, scheduled for 30 minutes, was part of a broader mission aimed at testing new spacesuit designs and procedures. Preparations and safety checks extended the total duration to an hour and 46 minutes. Before the spacewalk, the Crew Dragon capsule was depressurized, with the astronauts relying on SpaceX’s newly developed spacesuits for oxygen through a connection to the spacecraft.
As Isaacman and Gillis conducted their spacewalk, the remaining crew members, Scott Poteet, 50, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, 38, stayed inside the spacecraft. SpaceX’s ground team in Hawthorne, California, monitored the mission, ensuring the hatch door sealed properly and conducting leak checks.
The Polaris Dawn mission, which launched early Tuesday from Florida, represents SpaceX’s latest push to expand commercial space capabilities. Isaacman, who also financed the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, has not disclosed the cost of the Polaris mission, but similar flights have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Crew Dragon flights are priced around $55 million per seat.
The spacecraft orbited Earth six times throughout the day, reaching distances from 190 to 1,400 kilometers, the furthest humans have traveled in space since the Apollo missions. The crew spent time adjusting the spacecraft’s orbit and cabin pressure in preparation for the spacewalk.
Historically, spacewalks have been exclusive to government-trained astronauts, with approximately 270 conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) since 2000 and 16 by Chinese astronauts on the Tiangong space station. The Polaris crew’s training included two-and-a-half years of SpaceX mission simulations and experiential learning in challenging environments.
The spacewalk coincided with an increase in the number of astronauts in orbit. The Russian Soyuz MS-26 mission, which arrived at the ISS, brought the total number of astronauts in space to a record 19, including three Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong station.
As the only U.S. vehicle capable of reliably transporting humans to and from orbit, Crew Dragon has been a key player in NASA’s commercial spaceflight program. Boeing’s Starliner capsule, another vehicle developed under this program, has faced delays and issues, with its first crewed mission experiencing significant setbacks.
The successful spacewalk by Isaacman and Gillis marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of private space travel, demonstrating the growing capabilities and ambitions of commercial space enterprises.