Polaris Dawn crew completes first commercial spacewalk
The Polaris Dawn crew, after launching into space last week, completed the first commercial spacewalk at 7:58 am EDT on Thursday.
Wearing newly-designed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits, the crew began their approximately two-hour operation at 5:12 a.m. EDT while traveling at 17,500 miles per hour in an elliptical orbit of 190 x 700 km above the Earth.
This spacewalk represents an important milestone of the Polaris Program, a developmental programme designed to further the advancement of human spaceflight.
The crew began preparations for the spacewalk shortly after liftoff, through a two-day pre-breathe process designed to prevent decompression sickness by slowly acclimatising the crew to lower pressures while slowly increasing oxygen levels within the spacecraft’s cabin.
Once complete, the crew began preparations for the spacewalk, which included donning their EVA suits, completing suit leak checks, and venting Dragon down to vacuum.
After opening the hatch, the Polaris Dawn crew became the first four astronauts to be exposed to the vacuum of space at the same time.
Over the next approximately twenty minutes, Commander Jared Isaacman and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis egressed the vehicle, completed a series of tests designed to evaluate the suit’s mobility, thermal systems and the Dragon mobility aid “Skywalker” before returning to the cabin and closing the hatch.
Mission Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon supported Isaacman and Gillis throughout the entire operation monitoring vital support systems.
Once the hatch was closed, Dragon was re-pressurised, cabin oxygen and pressure levels confirmed, and the crew was able to remove their EVA suits, officially completing the suit testing alongside the first commercial spacewalk and the first EVA from a Dragon spacecraft. The crew was supported throughout the entire EVA by SpaceX teams in Hawthorne, California.
During the spacewalk, Isaacman reflected on the experience: “SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.”
“Today’s EVA was the first time four humans were exposed to the vacuum of space while completing the first-ever commercial astronaut spacewalk from a commercially-produced spacecraft in commercially-produced extravehicular activity suits,” said Stu Keech, Vice President of Dragon at SpaceX. “This incredible milestone is all thanks to the hard work of the crew and many SpaceX teams, all focused on a goal of making life multiplanetary.”
The Polaris Dawn mission will continue to provide additional updates and milestones before the crew returns with a targeted splashdown off the coast of Florida.
