A tech billionaire has performed the first private spacewalk hundreds of kilometres above Earth, a high-risk endeavour reserved for professional astronauts – until now.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company’s new spacesuits on his chartered flight.
The daring spacewalk on Thursday also included SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis going out once Isaacman was safely back inside.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
This spacewalk was simple and quick – less than two hours – compared with the drawn-out affairs conducted by NASA.
Astronauts at the International Space Station often need to move across the sprawling complex for repairs during spacewalks that can last seven to eight hours.
Isaacman emerged first from the hatch, joining a small elite group of spacewalkers who until now had included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said as the Crew Dragon capsule soared above the South Pacific.
The commercial spacewalk was the main focus of the five-day flight financed by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, and the culmination of years of development geared towards settling Mars and other planets.
All four on board donned the new spacewalking suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum.
They launched on Tuesday from Florida, rocketing further from Earth than anyone since NASA’s moonwalkers.
The orbit was reduced by half – to 740km – for the spacewalk.
This first spacewalking test involved more stretching than walking, with Isaacman flexing his arms and legs to see how the new spacesuit held up.
The hatch sported a walker-like structure for support.
After about 10 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis to go through the same motions.
Gillis bobbed up and down in weightlessness, no higher than her knees out of the capsule, as she twisted her arms and sent reports back to Mission Control.
More and more wealthy passengers are plunking down huge sums for rides aboard private rockets to experience a few minutes of weightlessness, while others have spent tens of millions to stay in space for days or even weeks.
Space experts say it is inevitable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalking, deemed one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight but also the most soul-stirring.
This operation had little room for error, and there were a few glitches.
Isaacman had to manually pull the hatch open instead of pushing a button on board, and Gillis reported seeing bulges in the hatch seal before heading out.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon stayed strapped to their seats to monitor from inside.
All four underwent intensive training before the trip.
‘Giant leap’ for commercial space industry
Mission controllers announced the spacewalk complete from company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, after one hour and 46 minutes.
It went by “in the blink of an eye”, SpaceX commentator Kate Tice said.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the team and SpaceX for “a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant US space economy”.
Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of the Shift4 credit card-processing company, has declined to disclose how much he invested in the flight.
It was the first of three flights in a program he dubbed Polaris; this one was called Polaris Dawn.
For SpaceX’s inaugural private flight in 2021, he took up contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Until Thursday, only 263 people had conducted a spacewalk, representing 12 countries.
The Soviet Union’s Alexei Leonov kicked it off in 1965 followed a few months later by NASA’s Ed White.