SpaceX marks milestone with first commercial spacewalk in history

SpaceX, the company responsible for the Polaris Dawn mission, conducted a historic mission. On Thursday, 12 September, after 09:55 GMT, a demonstration began during which the first private spacewalk was to take place. The vehicle's hatch was opened shortly before 12:00 GMT. Both crew members safely exited, returned to the vehicle, and closed the hatch around 12:20 GMT. Shortly before 13:00 GMT, the appropriate pressure in the spacecraft was established, officially concluding the entire spacewalk process.

Although there is still much to discover and explore on Earth, humanity has aspired to conquer space for decades. The first flight into this previously unknown frontier took place 63 years ago, and history continues to unfold before our eyes. This is thanks to the Polaris Dawn mission, which is unique for two reasons.

First and foremost, the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft, launched by the Falcon 9 rocket with a four-person crew from the Polaris Dawn programme, will reach the highest Earth orbit humans have reached since the Apollo programme. This means that no one has been this high for over 50 years.

However, that's not all. SpaceX reports that a spacewalk will take place during this historic flight. The spacecraft with the crew will lower its altitude to 435 miles, from which it will return to Earth in the following days. At this level, the Polaris Dawn crew will carry out a key element of the mission: the first commercial spacewalk in history.

Two people will leave the Crew Dragon spacecraft: Jared Isaacman, who will be on his second space flight (his first was in 2021) and serve as the commander on board, and Scott Poteet, who will participate in the mission as the pilot.

Engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon are the other two individuals who embarked on this unique mission. They are also the first SpaceX employees to travel to space.

SpaceX reports that the current mission not only focuses on popularising space flights and accelerating the development of space tourism but also aims to research the effects of space flights and cosmic radiation on the human body.

Engineers will test new SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits several hundred kilometres above Earth. All four crew members will wear them, even though only two astronauts will exit the vehicle. This is due to the construction of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. It does not have an airlock so that the entire capsule interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space and its radiation.

The EVA suit test will last two hours in total. The spacewalk itself will take 20 minutes, during which the duo will perform various movements to test the suits' functionality and manoeuvrability. The remaining time is necessary to close the hatch and re-pressurise the cabin.