The tech billionaire performed the first private spacewalk hundreds of miles above Earth on Thursday, a risky endeavor previously reserved for professional astronauts.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX on a charter flight to test the company’s latest spacesuit, a daring feat that also brought SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis outside after Isaacman was safely back inside.
This spacewalk was simple and quick compared to NASA’s lengthy efforts; the hatch was open in just 30 minutes. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station often have to move around the vast facility for repairs, always traveling in pairs and carrying their equipment. Station spacewalks can last seven to eight hours; this one was clocked in at under two hours.
Isaacman was first up, joining an elite group of spacewalkers that had previously only included professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
“We all have a lot of work to do when we get home, but from up here it certainly looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said as the capsule soared over the South Pacific. Cameras on board captured his waist-high silhouette at the hatch, with the blue Earth below him.
The commercial spacewalk was the main focus of the five-day flight funded by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s companies and was the culmination of years of development aimed at settling Mars and other planets.
All four aboard wore new spacewalk suits to protect them from the harsh vacuum. They launched from Florida on Tuesday, rocketing the spacecraft farther from Earth than anyone since NASA’s moonwalkers. Their orbit was halved to 460 miles for the spacewalk.
This first spacewalk test involved more stretching than walking. Isaacman kept his hands or feet attached to the capsule the entire time, bending his arms and legs to see how the suit would hold up. The hatch was fitted with a walker-like structure to provide additional support.
After about 10 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by Gillis, who bobbed up and down in the weightless capsule at knee height and twisted his arms to send reports to mission control.
Each was attached to a 12-foot tether, but unlike what happens aboard the space station, where astronauts routinely hover in a much lower orbit, the tethers were not unfurled or dangling at the end.
A growing number of wealthy passengers are willing to shell out billions of yen to experience a few minutes of weightlessness aboard private rockets. Some have paid 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 thrill-seekers will want to experience the spacewalk, which is considered one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight after launch and atmospheric re-entry, but also one of the most soul-stirring.
The maneuver was planned down to the minute, with little room for error. Trying out a new suit in a spacecraft unfamiliar with spacewalks added an extra level of risk, as did the fact that the entire capsule was exposed to the vacuum of space.
There were some glitches. Isaacman had to manually pull the hatch open instead of pushing a button on the ship. Gillis reported seeing a bulge in the hatch seal before departure.
Former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot Scott “Kid” Poteat and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon were strapped into seats and watched from inside the vehicle, and all four underwent intensive training before the trip.
“It happened in the blink of an eye,” SpaceX commentator Kate Theis said.
Congratulations poured in after the spacewalk ended after an hour and 46 minutes — a full swing and one orbit around the Earth.
“Today’s success marks a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said via X.
Isaacman, 41, founder and CEO of credit card processing company Shift4, declined to say how much he invested in the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he called “Polaris.” This one was called Polaris Dawn. SpaceX’s first private flight in 2021 featured a competition winner and a cancer survivor.
As of Thursday, only 263 people representing 12 countries had conducted spacewalks. The Soviet Union’s Alexei Leonov started the project in 1965, followed a few months later by NASA’s Ed White.
Dan is a contributor to The Associated Press.
