The Polaris Dawn mission launched Tuesday, taking the SpaceX crew farther from Earth than at any time since NASA’s Moon missions.
A billionaire completed first spacewalk in history made by civilianafter leaving the capsule SpaceX It is hundreds of kilometers above the Earth.
technology entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and its crew They waited for the capsule’s pressure to drop before opening the lid. Isaacman set off first, joining a small, elite group of spacewalkers that so far includes professional astronauts from only a dozen countries.
“We all have a lot to do at home, but from here it looks like a perfect world“said Isaacman. commercial spacewalk is the main purpose of a project five day mission Call Polaris DawnThe culmination of years of development funded by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company Colonizing Mars and other planets.
Loess four on board They wore SpaceX’s new spacewalk suits to protect themselves from the harsh void. They set off on Tuesday Florida (USA) and have traveled further from Earth than any rocket since NASA’s moonwalkers. For the spacewalk, the orbit was halved to 740 km.
Increase in space travel with wealthy passengers
This first spacewalk test, expected to last about two hours, included more. to lengthen What a beautiful journey. Isaacman kept one hand or foot attached to the spacesuit the entire time as he flexed his arms and legs to see how he would stay upright. The hatch featured a walker-like structure to provide additional support.
A few minutes later 15 minutes outsideSpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis was brought in to replace Isaacman. Gillis was rocking weightlessly up and down outside the capsule, no higher than his knees, as he rotated his arms and sent reports to Mission Control.
Each had 12-foot straps, but these straps did not unfurl or hang on the end as they did before. International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts often float to a much lower orbit to perform repairs.
More and more wealthy travelers are going out large amounts of money travel on ship special rockets and experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Others have spent tens of millions of dollars to stay in space for days or even weeks.
Space experts and risk analysts say it’s inevitable that some will seek the thrill of space. space walkstaken into account One of the most dangerous parts of space flight after release and re-entry, but also the most poignant.
Mission failures
This operation was planned down to the minute little margin of error. Testing new spacesuits in a non-spacewalk spacecraft increased the risk. Fact is that whole capsule it was exposed to vacuum space.
happened some mistakes. Isaacman had to do this open the lid manually instead of pressing a button on the ship. Gillis reported seeing him before leaving. lumps in hatch seal.
Former Air Force Thunderbird pilot Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped into their seats so they could observe from inside. Four of them received an award intensive training before the trip.
Isaacman41, CEO and founder of credit card processing company Shift4, He refused to disclose how much he invested in flight.
It was the first of three flights for the program he called Polaris; that’s what it was called Polaris Dawn. for him SpaceX’s first private flight in 2021brought pageant winners and a cancer survivor.
Only until Thursday 263 people they had done something spacewalkrepresentative 12 countries. Soviet Alexei Leonov started it in 1965, followed a few months later by NASA’s Ed White.
