A billionaire on Thursday conducted the first private spacewalk hundreds of miles above Earth, a high-risk undertaking previously reserved for professional astronauts.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company’s new spacesuit on his chartered flight. SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis also took part in the daring spacewalk and exited the spacecraft after Isaacman was safely inside.
The spacewalk was quick and easy — it lasted less than two hours, compared to the longer walks NASA typically does. Astronauts on the International Space Station often have to walk around the complex for repairs, always in pairs and carrying tools. Spacewalks can last seven to eight hours.
Isaacman was the first to exit the hatch, and now joins a small, elite group of astronauts that until now has included professional astronauts from only a dozen countries.
“Back home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said as the capsule lifted off over the South Pacific. Onboard cameras captured his silhouette at waist height in the hatch, with blue Earth below.
The five-day flight, funded by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, was primarily intended to be a commercial spacewalk, and was the culmination of years of development to colonize Mars and other planets.
The four-member crew wore SpaceX’s new suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum. They launched from Florida on Tuesday and traveled farther from Earth than anyone has since NASA astronauts reached the moon. The orbit was cut in half for the departure, to 460 miles (740 kilometers).
Their first space test involved more stretching than walking. Isaacman kept one foot or hand in contact with the spacecraft 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 extra support.
After about 10 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis. Gillis bounced up and down in weightlessness, no higher than her knees outside the capsule, flexing her arms and sending reports to mission control.
Each had 12-foot (3.6-meter) cables connecting them to the spacecraft, but they were not intended to be deployed or hung at the end, unlike the International Space Station, where astronauts typically float to make repairs in much lower orbit.
More and more wealthy travelers are spending huge amounts of money to hitch a ride on a private rocket and experience a few minutes of zero gravity. Others have shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to spend 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 space flight — second only to launch and reentry — but also the most thrilling.
Thursday’s operation was planned in detail, with little room for error. Testing new spacesuits, and doing so from a new spacewalking craft, increased the risk. Also increased was the fact that the entire capsule was exposed to the vacuum of space.
There were some glitches. Isaacman had to open the hatch manually rather than pressing a button on board. Before departure, Gillis said he noticed a bulge in the hatch seal.
Former US Air Force Thunderbird pilot Scott “Kid” Poteat and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped into their seats to monitor from inside. The four underwent intensive training before the trip.
Mission controllers declared the end of the spacewalk after one hour and 46 minutes — or one full orbit around Earth — from the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX commentator Kate Tice said it happened “in the blink of an eye.”
Isaacman, 41, the CEO and founder of credit card processing company Shift4, 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 for the first mission being Polaris Dawn. SpaceX’s first private flight in 2021 carried a competition winner and a cancer survivor aboard.
As of Thursday, only 263 people from 12 countries had performed spacewalks. The first was Alexei Leonov of the Soviet Union in 1965, followed a few months later by Ed White of NASA.
