SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission has made history by completing the first-ever commercial spacewalk. In the early morning hours of September 12, billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the mission’s commander and sponsor, along with SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, exited the Crew Dragon capsule to conduct the historic spacewalk.
The Polaris Dawn mission, the second mission personally funded by Isaacman, who also sponsored the 2021 Inspiration4 mission, launched on September 10 for a five-day journey. The mission’s key objective was to test new technologies for future space missions, including the performance of SpaceX’s new, slimmer spacesuits designed for extravehicular activities (EVAs) like spacewalks.
Prior to this mission, only astronauts from government space agencies had performed EVAs, but Polaris Dawn has demonstrated the viability of private astronauts stepping into this challenging role.
The spacewalk began at approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, with Isaacman emerging from the Crew Dragon’s hatch. Using handrails and the “skywalker” system—a set of handholds specially designed by SpaceX—Isaacman tested the mobility and functionality of the new spacesuit.
Commander @rookisaacman has egressed Dragon and is going through the first of three suit mobility tests that will test overall hand body control, vertical movement with Skywalker, and foot restraint pic.twitter.com/XATJQhLuIZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
Moments later, Gillis followed suit, conducting similar mobility tests while both remained tethered to the capsule. While the two astronauts never completely floated free from the spacecraft, their successful EVA provided invaluable data for SpaceX’s ongoing development of spacesuits that can be used for future lunar and deep-space missions.
Mission Specialist @Gillis_SarahE is conducting the same series of suit mobility tests @rookisaacman completed pic.twitter.com/XbS6SNFv3a
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
The suits, designed specifically for this mission, are significantly less bulky than NASA’s traditional suits. SpaceX’s goal is to create more user-friendly equipment that will be essential for future commercial ventures into space, including missions to the Moon and Mars. During their spacewalk, both Isaacman and Gillis reported no major issues with the suits.
The Polaris Dawn mission also checked off another significant accomplishment. The crew, which also includes pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, reached an altitude of 1,400km (870 miles) above Earth’s surface, marking the highest human orbital flight since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.
