Four civilians on a daring SpaceX mission complete the first commercial spacewalk
Originally Published: 12 SEP 24 05:34 ET
Updated: 12 SEP 24 08:17 ET
By Jackie Wattles and Ashley Strickland, CNN
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(CNN) — A four-person crew of civilians on board SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission unlocked the hatch of their capsule and made history as the first group of non-government astronauts to conduct a spacewalk.
SpaceX hosted a live webcast of the event — also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA) — which kicked off at 6:12 a.m. ET.
The entire SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle propelling and protecting the crew was depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space — a dangerous and historic milestone in the Polaris Dawn crew’s five-day journey through Earth’s orbit. The mission has already set records, traveling farther into space than any human since NASA’s Apollo program concluded more than 50 years ago.
The crewmates — which includes Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn’s financer; his close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis — had prepared for this spacewalk since taking flight at 5:23 a.m. ET Tuesday.
The team slowly underwent what’s called a “pre-breathe” process, a step intended to purge their blood of nitrogen to prevent the gas from bubbling — a potentially lethal condition — as they experienced the vacuum of space.
Isaacman exited the capsule first just before 7 a.m. ET.
He walked up a mobility aid — essentially a ladder that SpaceX has dubbed “skywalker” — to venture into the endless void and took in the views.
“Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here — looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said.
Gillis and Isaacman were the only two crewmembers to actually exit the spacecraft, and they did so for a combined total of roughly 20 minutes.
Gillis exited the capsule for about 10 minutes after Isaacman returned to his seat. She spent her time outside wiggling around in her spacesuit — as expected — to help test out its mobility.
Developing spacesuits that fit and function more like normal clothes than the highly restrictive and puffy white suits that have been used during spacewalks of the past is a key goal for SpaceX.
But the cabin’s windows still afforded incredible views for the entire crew, providing mind-blowing glimpses of Earth whisking by below. The Polaris Dawn crew can see a sunrise and sunset about every 106 minutes.
“It is honestly one of my favorite views,” Mennon said. “The sun peaks over the horizon and the whole world just lights up — or the whole world goes to sleep. And you just get to witness this hour after hour, and it’s so beautiful. Our Earth is so beautiful.”
Hatch opens to the vacuum of space
Though the crew previously reached a peak altitude of more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the spacewalk occurred while their vehicle traveled between 190 and 700 kilometers above Earth (118 to 435 miles).
All told, the Crew Dragon capsule spent about two hours exposed to space with the hatch open.
“There’s a lot of time built in for venting (or depressurizing the spacecraft) and repressurizing,” Isaacman told CNN about the two-hour spacewalk window. “And probably the biggest fear that (we’ve tried to) protect for is a failure to repressurize the vehicle — because then all you have is your oxygen reserves to get back home in about two hours if needed.
“So I don’t expect we’ll have too much sight-seeing time,” Isaacman added.
Brand-new suits
While Isaacman and Gillis were outside the capsule, however, they focused on demonstrating how their brand-new EVA suits work in space.
EVA suits essentially function as spacecraft unto themselves — just shaped and formatted to fit the human body. Unlike the iconic puffy white spacesuits that government astronauts use while exiting the International Space Station for a spacewalk, the SpaceX EVA suits do not include a Primary Life Support System, or PLSS, according to Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut who serves as a SpaceX consultant.
A PLSS is essentially a backpack that allows ISS astronauts to float more freely through space to carry out complex tasks, such as repairing and replacing hardware outside the space station. Instead, the Polaris Dawn crew will receive their life support from long hoses attached to their spacecraft.
Still, SpaceX’s EVA suits are an impressive feat of engineering. The company designed and developed the spacesuits in just two and a half years — specifically for this mission.
The goal was to develop spacesuits that could one day be produced on a large scale, rather than expensive and bespoke objects currently used by space agencies.
When discussing the vision for the EVA suits in an interview with CNN, Isaacman referenced the bigger picture goal: to one day have entire settlements of people living in space.
Isaacman said he discussed that vision with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and they agreed: “We need space suits. And, you know, they shouldn’t cost hundreds of millions of dollars. We need tens of thousands of them someday.”
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