The billionaire and one other crew member went on the first private spacewalk Thursday, partnering with SpaceX on a venture that will take place hundreds of miles above Earth and has until now been reserved for professional astronauts.
Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew waited until the capsule was depressurized before opening the hatch.
“We all have a lot of work to do at home. But from here, it certainly looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said.
The spacewalk was simple and quick—less than two hours—compared to the more drawn-out affairs conducted by NASA. Astronauts on the ISS often have to move around the sprawling complex to make repairs, always traveling in pairs and carrying equipment. Spacewalks on the station can last seven to eight hours.
All four aboard donned new SpaceX spacewalk suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum. They blasted off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a rocket farther from Earth than any since NASA’s moonwalkers more than 50 years ago. The orbit was cut in half — to 450 miles — for the spacewalk.
The spacewalk was the main goal of the five-day flight and the culmination of years of development work aimed at colonizing Mars and other planets.
This first spacewalk test involved more stretching than walking. The plan was for Isaacman to exit the capsule but keep a hand or foot attached to it, flexing his arms and legs to see how the new suit would hold up. The hatch was designed like a walker, providing additional support.
Private cost unclear
After about 15 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, who performed the same movements. Each had a 12-foot (3.6-meter) tether, but he had no intention of unwinding it or letting it dangle at the end, unlike what happens on the International Space Station, where astronauts routinely float out to make repairs in a much lower orbit.
Scott Poteet, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped into their seats to monitor the situation from inside. All four underwent extensive training before the trip.
Isaacman, the 41-year-old CEO and founder of credit-card processing company Shift4, declined to say how much he had invested in the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he called Polaris; this one was called Polaris Dawn. He carried competition winners and a cancer survivor on SpaceX’s inaugural private flight in 2021.
As of Thursday, only 263 people representing 12 countries have taken a spacewalk. The first was Alexei Leonov of the USSR in 1965, and a few months later, Ed White of NASA.
SpaceX sent a four-person crew of civilian astronauts into space to complete the farthest spacewalk by humans since the 1972 Apollo mission and conduct the first commercial spacewalk.
