The event was broadcast live via video link
The commander of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission, American billionaire Jared Isaacman, and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis wandered outside their spacecraft today in the first private “spacewalk” in history.
The event was broadcast live via video link. Isaacman stepped out of the pod first wearing his white and gray uniform. He stood on a metal structure that had been adapted to the capsule for this reason. “It’s great,” he said while standing at an altitude of 700 kilometers, higher than the International Space Station (ISS).
Sarah Gillis followed next and also made moves to try on SpaceX’s brand new suits, the first intended for spacewalks. Testing these suits was one of the main objectives of the mission. Then she returned in her turn inside the boat.
Two other passengers, pilot Scott Potitt and fellow SpaceX employee Anna Menon, remained in the Dragon capsule, but were also exposed to the vacuum of space, and were supplied with oxygen from tubes in their suits. The Polaris Dawn mission, funded by SpaceX and Jared Isaacman, marks a new milestone in commercial space exploration. Until now all spacewalks had been done by professional astronauts and not by civilians.
