SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission sees billionaire Jared Isaacman and crew complete world’s first private spacewalk

SpaceX's five-day-long Polaris Dawn expedition returned to Earth on September 15 with its four astronaut crew having undertaken the world's first private spacewalk, AP reported.

The crew, comprising tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who served as Mission Commander; Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon; Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis; and Mission pilot Scott Poteet, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico today after their historic mission. Menon and Gillis are both SpaceX engineers, while Poteet is a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.

The AP report added that besides the spacewalk feat, the four astronauts also hold the distinction of having travelled higher than anyone has since NASA’s moonwalkers.

SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars, as per the report.

Flight to the Heights

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which ferried the mission to and fro, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness on September 15.

The crew completed the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 740 km above Earth — a distance higher than the International Space Station (ISS) and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Notably, their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 1,408 km after liftoff on September 10.

Making Spacewalk History

After the mission, crew members Isaacman and Gilles became the 264th and 265th people to perform a spacewalk — and the only non-professional astronauts to do so. The first human spacewalk record was held by the erstwhile Soviet Union, achieved in 1965.

During the commercial spacewalk performed on September 12, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour.

Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand-new spacesuit, followed by Gillis, who was knee-high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week, AP reported.

The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the ISS. The report added that most of that time was needed to depressurise the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even crew members Menon and Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.

Billionaire Funding for Polaris

A US-based tech billionaire, Isaacman is CEO of electronic payment company Shift4 and head of the SpaceX-affiliated Polaris program. He is known for charting the ‘Inspiration4’ in 2021, the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight.

This was his second chartered flight with SpaceX. He has two more missions planned with the Polaris programme, which he is personally financing, the AP report said. The mission is named 'Polaris' after the North Star.

For his first flight in 2021, Isaacman paid an undisclosed amount and took contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor along with him while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, it added.

The just-completed mission also saw Isaacman share costs of an undisclosed amount with SpaceX.

(With inputs from AP)