Space Tourists Go for a Spacewalk for the First Time in History and Test New Spacesuits

Two crew members of the US reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft, launched into orbit with four tourists, have entered outer space for a spacewalk. They were wearing experimental space suits.

This was reported by SpaceX.

Thus, for the first time in history, non-professional astronauts have been privately launched into space as part of the Polaris Dawn commercial mission.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis entered the space vacuum.

The spacewalk began at 6:12 a.m. US East Coast time, when the ship was more than 700 km above the Earth. It lasted about two hours.

In addition to Isaacman and Gillis, the crew includes retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel pilot Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet and SpaceX medic Anna Menon.

Source: SpaceX

For this operation, the cockpit of the Crew Dragon, which has no airlock, was depressurised, and the crew put on new, experimental spacesuits created by SpaceX.

Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris programme, funded by Shift4 Payments CEO Isaacson. The flight was originally planned for December 2021, but due to delays in project development, it was repeatedly postponed.

Source: SpaceX

As The Gaze previously reported, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft was launched on Tuesday as part of the Polaris Dawn commercial mission from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In total, the tourists' flight into orbit is expected to last five days. They will perform 36 scientific experiments on the impact of space and radiation on human health.

According to SpaceX, during the flight, the reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft made six orbits around the Earth at an altitude of 1,400 km, the highest flight since the US manned Apollo lunar programme more than 50 years ago. It then descended to an orbit of 742 km in preparation for the launch of non-professional astronauts into space.