Private Astronauts Prepare for First Commercial Spacewalk in Orbit

On Thursday, a groundbreaking spacewalk is scheduled to take place as a group of private astronauts embarks on the first commercial spacewalk in orbit. This ambitious mission, known as Polaris Dawn, is spearheaded by SpaceX and marks a significant milestone in private space exploration.

The Polaris Dawn mission began with a pre-dawn launch from Florida on Tuesday, sending a Crew Dragon capsule into orbit with four astronauts aboard. The team includes billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired military pilot Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. This mission, which represents SpaceX’s most daring venture yet, aims to test new spacesuit designs and push the boundaries of commercial spaceflight.

The spacewalk is set to commence at 2:23 a.m. ET (0623 GMT) at an altitude of 700 km (435 miles). During the spacewalk, two astronauts will venture outside the Crew Dragon capsule, which will be depressurised for the activity. The remaining two astronauts will stay inside the capsule, relying on the SpaceX-developed spacesuits for oxygen. This operation will be conducted in microgravity, a challenging environment for such activities.

Jared Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder of Shift4 Payments, is funding the Polaris Dawn mission. He previously financed SpaceX’s Inspiration4 flight in 2021. Although the exact cost of the Polaris mission has not been disclosed, it is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, given that Crew Dragon flights typically cost around $55 million per seat.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft has been orbiting Earth in an elliptical path, ranging from 190 km to 1,400 km, the furthest humans have traveled from Earth since the last Apollo mission in 1972. The spacecraft has now adjusted its orbit to a peak altitude of 700 km and prepared its cabin for the upcoming spacewalk.

During the spacewalk, Isaacman and Gillis will exit the capsule, tethered by an oxygen line, while Poteet and Menon will remain inside. This private spacewalk follows a long history of government astronauts performing spacewalks, with about 270 recorded on the International Space Station (ISS) since its inception in 2000, and 16 by Chinese astronauts on the Tiangong Space Station.

The first US spacewalk occurred in 1965 aboard a Gemini capsule, a procedure similar to the one planned for Polaris Dawn. The mission will also contribute to scientific research on how the human body reacts to deep space, enhancing our understanding of space health and physiology.

Crew Dragon, the only US vehicle capable of regularly placing humans in orbit and returning them to Earth, has been a cornerstone of NASA’s commercial spaceflight program since 2021. This program aims to develop privately built US vehicles capable of transporting astronauts to and from the ISS. While Boeing’s Starliner capsule was also developed under this program, it has faced delays and issues, including a troubled test mission that ended with the capsule returning empty.

As the Polaris Dawn mission progresses, it promises to offer new insights and advancements in commercial space exploration, marking another step forward in humanity’s journey into space.