The world's first private spacewalk has been completed. On September 12, 2024 at 7:58 am EDT, two of the four-person crew of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Resilience returned after a 106-minute tethered EVA 732 km (455 miles) above the Earth.
There have been any number of spacewalks since Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule in 1965 and they are, for want of a better word, a routine operation aboard the International Space Station (ISS). However, until today this activity has been a government monopoly carried out on government missions using government spacecraft.
That changed at 6:12 am EDT today when Polaris Dawn Mission Commander (and billionaire founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments) Jared Isaacman, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet, and Mission Specialist Anna Menon put on their specially made EVA space suits, pressurized them and 'stepped outside'. It marks the first time a spacewalk has been attempted by a private crew on a privately chartered commercial spacecraft.
Watch Dragon’s first spacewalk with the @PolarisProgram’s Polaris Dawn crew https://t.co/svdJRkGN7K
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
Though they look very similar to the standard emergency suits used by SpaceX astronauts, the spacewalk suits differ in that they are more robust with more thermal protection. The limbs have special joints that allow for greater mobility, and the new helmets have a head-up display (HUD) and camera.
Contrary to science fiction movies, a spacewalk isn't just a matter of slapping on a pair of silver coveralls and a goldfish bowl. Using a space suit is more like a mixed-gas deep-sea diving operation and requires about as much preparation.
When the Polaris Dawn crew pressurized their suits, they then had to complete the process they'd begun the day before when they lowered the pressure of the cabin to about half an atmosphere and increased the oxygen concentration. This was to make it both possible to move in the suits and to purge the nitrogen from the astronauts' bloodstreams to prevent the bends.
Once in their suits and the cabin was depressurized, the purge was completed as pure oxygen was fed to them through umbilical tubes attaching them to the capsule's life support system. Meanwhile, a secondary oxygen loop provided them with cooling.
After completing all suit checks and turning the nose of the craft toward the Sun, Isaacman opened the motorized hatch, releasing the last of the air. Isaacman then left the craft using a special ladder for hand and foot holds. He then returned inside and was replaced by Gillis. Poteet and Menon remained in their seats during the entire EVA while the ship's environmental sensing suite monitored the crew.
When the spacewalk was completed, the hatch was closed and the cabin pressurized to one atmosphere using a specially installed nitrogen repressurizer system.
Polaris Dawn is scheduled to return to Earth after a planned five days in space with Resilience splashing down at one of several ocean landing zones off the coast of Florida.
Source: SpaceX
