Before now, only professional astronauts from government space agencies had ever completed a spacewalk. On Thursday, September 12, the Polaris Dawn flight changed that. Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis are now the first non-professional crew members to perform a spacewalk. This maneuver occurred from 6:12 a.m. EST and ended at 7:58 a.m. EST.
The Crew of the Polaris Dawn Flight
Beyond Isaacman and Gillis, the crew included the retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet and second SpaceX engineer Anna Menon. Their flight began on Tuesday and concluded on Saturday, a huge milestone for everyone involved.
Each of the four crew members spends the two days leading up to the spacewalk performing an exercise called “pre-breathing” to keep themselves from feeling decompression sickness, also called getting “the bends,” due to a rapid change in pressure. This effort involves replacing nitrogen in the blood with oxygen.
As anyone would expect, there was reportedly a sense of tension and anticipation as the crew prepared to open the hatch between them and the vacuum of space. There would be no airlock between them and the rest of the spacecraft. The craft was depressurized to bring the conditions inside closer to what awaited them outside.
This runs counter to the spacewalks performed at the International Space Station, which typically feature an airlock to separate the craft from the vacuum of space. The SpaceX Dragon Capsule has no such protection and was effectively exposed.
The Space Walk Mission
The walk was postponed for two and a half hours, though it is still being determined why. A live broadcast depicted the two emerging from the Dragon capsule, floating 435 miles above the Earth. As Isaacman eventually left the SpaceX spacecraft in a specially designed suit, he said, “Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.”
The crew narrated their spacewalk throughout the mission and communicated how the suits felt and performed outside the spacecraft. Gillis-related data was obtained from a heads-up display in her suit outside the capsule.
While the Dragon capsule has now been to space three times with 11 crew in total, Isaacman was the only member of the four-person crew to have gone to space before. Neither the spacecraft nor the spacesuits worn by the crew had been tested for their environment and were not subject to safety regulations outside of SpaceX itself.
An Achievement in the Vacuum of Space
Nevertheless, Isaacman and Gillis’s walk was higher than any previous spacewalk, proving the effectiveness of SpaceX’s extravehicular activity (EVA) and intravehicular activity (IVA) astronaut suits.
These new models feature “heads-up” displays, which provide the wearer with valuable information about the suit while it is in use. Each astronaut was equipped with nitrogen and oxygen tanks, and the crew successfully broke the record for the most people in the vacuum of space at once.
A Turn Toward the Private Sector
While Isaacman commercially funded the spacewalk, the initiative speaks to growing interest in private space travel. SpaceX owner Elon Musk has pushed to expand private space travel for non-professional astronauts as the billionaire continues to express interest in more extensive and bolder missions.
Even government agencies like NASA are increasingly looking toward the private sector to handle the transportation of astronauts on missions as a cost-saving measure. However, whether demonstrations like this one will satisfy NASA’s standards remains to be seen.
The spacewalk marks a historic milestone in mankind’s relationship with space. The future is sure to hold more civilan spacewalks as technology continues to advance.
