The world’s first private spacewalk was completed, fashioning new spacesuits and a Crew Dragon space capsule as SpaceX successfully undertook a task previously limited to NASA. Mission: Polaris Dawn let two astronauts spend 10 minutes in space tethered to a capsule.
Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4, piloted the capsule and was the first to experience the vacuum, followed by Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, while two other crew members Scott Poteet and Anna Menon stayed in. The crew launched from Florida and has been in orbit 730 kilometers above the Earth.
The purpose was to test the spacesuits along with the depressurization process in the hope for future missions to Mars, as well as the extent a private company can achieve in traversing the cosmos.
NASA has set the ground for development of the Crew Dragon, as well as Boeing’s Starliner, in pursuit of establishing private commercial vehicles capable of transportation between the Earth and the ISS.
“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy,” said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator. Considering a $55 million price tag for a seat on the Crew Dragon, it is speculated that Isaacman has paid hundreds of millions of dollars for his effort.
Prior to this accomplishment, only astronauts intensively trained by government agencies for many years could perform spacewalks, roughly 270 personnel on the International Space Station since 2000, and 16 personnel on the Chinese Tiangong station. On the contrary, the Polaris crew spent about 2 years in simulations.
