A billionaire led the first private spacewalk Thursday, partnering with SpaceX for the risky maneuver hundreds of miles above Earth.
Technology entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, 41, and his team waited for their capsule to depressurize before opening the hatch. Isaacman was the first to emerge, joining a small, elite group of people who had performed spacewalks, which until now included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
The four-member crew donned SpaceX’s new suits to protect them from the harsh vacuum. They launched Tuesday from Florida and went farther from Earth than anyone since NASA astronauts reached the moon. The orbit was cut in half, to 458 miles (737 kilometers) for departure.
HOW LONG DID THE WALK LAST AND OTHER AMAZING FACTS
The spacewalk was the centerpiece of a five-day flight funded by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, capping years of development toward colonizing Mars and other planets.
His first space test, expected to last about two hours, involved more stretching than walking. The plan called for Isaacman to step out of the capsule but keep one foot or hand in contact with the craft at all times, while flexing his arms and legs to see how the new spacesuit held up. The hatch had a walker-like structure for added support.
After about 15 minutes outside, Isaacman was scheduled to be replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis to follow suit.
The four astronauts will remain in orbit for five days and test new spacesuits that will allow greater mobility.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, who bought the mission to space from SpaceX; retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Poteet; and two SpaceX engineers, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, make up the crew of the Polaris Mission.
The operation was broadcast live with several cameras placed inside and outside the capsule, through whose hatch in the dome Isaacman would emerge first and then Gillis.
The suits, which were pressurized and had chambers, were worn by all four crew members because Dragon has no airlocks and so the entire capsule must be depressurized before the hatch can be opened for the spacewalk.
Each had 12-foot (3.6-meter) cables connecting them to the spacecraft, but there were no plans to deploy them or dangle by the end, unlike on the International Space Station, where astronauts typically float out to make repairs in a much lower orbit.
Thursday’s operation had been planned in detail, with little room for error. Testing new spacesuits and using a new spacecraft for spacewalks increased the risk. So did the fact that the entire capsule had been exposed to the vacuum of space.
Scott Kidd Poteet, a former Thunderbird pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and Space X engineer Anna Menon stayed strapped into their seats to monitor from inside. All four underwent intense training before the trip.
Ochoa was the first woman to reach space and will now be recognized with the highest civilian honor in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. To see more from Telemundo, visit
WHO IS BILLIONAIRE JARED ISAACMAN
Isaacman, 41, the CEO and founder of credit card processing company Shift4, has declined to say how much he spent on the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he has named Polaris, with the nickname Polaris Dawn for the first mission. SpaceX’s first private flight in 2021 carried contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Menon and Gillis also became the women to have traveled the farthest from Earth in history, after NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, who traveled about 620 kilometers (386 miles) aboard the space shuttle.
As of Thursday, only 263 people from 12 countries had performed a spacewalk. The first was Alexei Leonov of the Soviet Union in 1965, followed a few months later by American Ed White.
Dragon was placed into orbit more than 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) above Earth on Tuesday, a step toward another milestone planned for the mission: reaching a maximum altitude of about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the farthest since the end of NASA’s Apollo program in 1972.
HOW MUCH DID THE MILLIONAIRES PAY?
The mission, which will conclude on the sixth day with a splashdown off the coast of Florida, is one of three that Isaacman, founder of the online payments company Shift4, purchased from SpaceX in 2022 for its Polaris Program, for an undisclosed amount.
In 2021, the businessman commanded the historic Inspiration4 mission, the first completely commercial mission to orbit the planet.
More and more wealthy passengers are shelling out huge sums of money to ride on private rockets and experience a few minutes of zero gravity. Others have spent tens of millions of dollars to stay a few days or even weeks in space. Space experts and risk analysts say it’s inevitable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalking, considered one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight, second only to launch and reentry, but also the most thrilling.
