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LAST UPDATE | 12 Sep 2024
A GROUP OF billionaires made history today by becoming the first civilians to perform spacewalks, as NASA hailed “a giant leap forward” for the commercial space industry.
The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, led by fintech billionaire Jared Isaacman, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, journeying deeper into the cosmos than any humans in half a century, since the Apollo program.
With the four-member crew’s Dragon spacecraft adjusted to an orbit with a high of 700 kilometers, pure oxygen began flowing into their suits Thursday morning, marking the official start of their extravehicular activity (EVA) at 10:12 GMT.
A short time later, Isaacman swung open the hatch and climbed through, gripping the hand and footholds of a structure known as “Skywalker,” as a breathtaking view of Earth unfolded below him.
“It’s gorgeous,” he told mission control in Hawthorne, California, where teams cheered on important checkpoints.
It was yet another major milestone for SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002.
Initially dismissed by the wider industry, it has since grown into a powerhouse that in 2020 beat aerospace giant Boeing in delivering a spaceship to provide rides for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant US space economy,” NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk.
Polaris Dawn's Mission Commander @rookisaacman has completed his suit mobility tests and is now back inside Dragon pic.twitter.com/oyEvjEKfRo
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
Prior to the hatch opening, the crew underwent a “prebreathe” procedure to remove nitrogen from their bloodstream, preventing decompression sickness. The cabin pressure was then gradually lowered to align with the vacuum of space.
Isaacman and crewmate Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, spent a few minutes each performing mobility tests on SpaceX’s next-generation suits that boast heads-up displays, helmet cameras and enhanced joint mobility systems — before returning inside.
Extravehicular activity officially ended after an hour and 46 minutes, following cabin re-pressurization.
While it marked a first for the commercial sector, the spacewalk fell short of the daring feats from the early space era.
Early spacefarers like Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov drifted away from their spacecraft on tethers, and a select few Space Shuttle astronauts even used jetpacks to fly completely untethered.
Since Dragon doesn’t have an airlock, the entire crew were exposed to the vacuum of space. Mission pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped in throughout as they monitored vital support systems.
“The risk is greater than zero, that’s for sure, and it’s certainly higher than anything that has been accomplished on a commercial basis,” former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe told AFP.
Mission Specialist @Gillis_SarahE is conducting the same series of suit mobility tests @rookisaacman completed pic.twitter.com/XbS6SNFv3a
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
The spacewalk followed an audacious first phase of the mission, during which the Dragon spacecraft reached a peak altitude of 1,400 kilometres.
This put the crew more than three times higher than the International Space Station, in a region known as the inner Van Allen radiation belt – a zone filled with dangerous, high-energy particles.
All four underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours on simulators as well as skydiving, scuba diving and summiting an Ecuadoran volcano.
Upcoming tasks include testing laser-based satellite communications between the spacecraft and the vast Starlink satellite constellation, and completing dozens of experiments, including tests on contact lenses with embedded microelectronics to monitor changes in eye pressure and shape in space.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX.
Financial terms of the partnership remain under wraps, but Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4Payments, reportedly poured $200 million of his fortune into leading the 2021 all-civilian SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission.
The final Polaris mission aims to be the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship, a prototype next-generation rocket that is key to founder Musk’s ambitions of colonizing Mars.
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They never left the craft,just stuck their heads outside,that’s not a space walk,that was just a space gawk
@Rab.c.nesbitt: Yeah, not worth reporting, right?
@Rab.c.nesbitt: The existential terror would be awesome.
@Thesaltyurchin: can you imagine what feelings were going through their minds, seeing Earth, fascinating! But yes the absolute terror as well.
@Rab.c.nesbitt: never left earth more like!
@Lydia Mcloughlin:they’re just in earth’s low orbit,they’re considering building a couple of bike stands there next year to accommodate and boost space tourism
@Fiona Wyse: I think I would love it but then actually looking out the door would be bonkers! Like is their a vertigo in space? or is it more like looking out, mad.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m fairly good with heights but I get serious anxiety when I watch that video from a few years back of the guy doing that red bull sponsored jump and parachute from the edge of space. I’d be terrified I’d jump and miss the planet.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: lmao!.. 100% I think I’d open my eyes and just fall. the legs would go instantly
Just another extravagant, and reckless waste of monies that could have been better spent helping millions of their fellow human beings back on planet earth. They haven’t successfully done anything significant that hasn’t already been done or bettered by state sponsored space agencies.
@Chaotic State: Exactly, all of this was done last century.
@Chaotic State: They should have given it to the Catholic Church to distribute it among the poor. Other religions and charities are available, of course. All with the salt of the earth people running them.
Like or loath Musk, he’s not afraid to push boundaries on what the everyday human can experience.
@Shimo F: Like Harvey Weinstein?
@Vince Cable: What’s that sex pest got to do with Musk?
@Shimo F: Outside of financing the expedition Musk had no part in it, also, these aren’t ‘everyday humans’, they’re multi millionaires.
Leave them all up there, with that reptile musk
@Jonny Hellzapoppin: There’s a new epidemic spreading in Ireland, MDS, Musk Derangement Syndrome.
If they are that committed to their money addictions they’re going to need somewhere to go after they’ve r@pe d the planet and robbed it’s inhabitants.
@Thesaltyurchin: the pilots get paid to go
@P. V. Aglue: They do what their told. Like the rest of us.
I have booked my tickets.
@Gerry Dornan: are they one-way.
I always wanted to be shot into space. My dad I would of been if he wasn’t drunk.
People are concerned about the elite and the emissions from their private jets
Spacex: hold my beer
That is not a space walk. Person stood on ladder and looked out. Space walk is 100% outside craft and tethered while moving at distance from exit hatch and back again i.e. Space walk is a period of activity spent outside craft. In this instance person still inside craft looking out!
_ sticks toe in swimming pool.
- Ma, I dohe two lengths.
how many did they screwed to get so rich ? how many times they refused their employees to get a decent increase ? stay up there and freeze
have your say