Polaris Dawn Is a Success: SpaceX’s First Commercial Spacewalk Is Game-Changing

Polaris Dawn is already one of the most iconic missions in commercial space exploration. A private company, SpaceX, has completed an extravehicular activity for the first time in history. Four people were exposed to the vacuum of space. Two peered into it through a ladder. And it was all broadcast live.

For the first time, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft opened up into nothingness. More than 400 miles above Earth, between Australia and Antarctica, mission commander Jared Isaacman waited until the cabin was fully depressurized to turn the hatch handles and climb up the “Skywalker” ladder into outer space.

What followed were some of the most awe-inspiring images SpaceX has produced since Elon Musk launched his red Tesla Roadster into space in 2018. Isaacman’s first-person helmet cam showed viewers as he climbed the ladder and peered out into the shocking blue of the Earth and the terrifying black of the void.

Upon becoming the first person to have peered outside a commercial spacecraft orbiting planet Earth, Isaacman shared a thought, “Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, the Earth sure looks like a perfect world.”

Later, a third-person camera from the spacecraft itself showed him checking all the joints of the SpaceX spacesuit and how easy it was to climb up and down the ladder. Sarah Gillis, another crew member and a SpaceX employee, repeated this task minutes later.

Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions funded by billionaire Isaacman and SpaceX to accelerate the development of human spaceflight. On board are Isaacman himself (commander), Kidd Poteet (pilot), Anna Menon (medical officer), and Gillis (mission specialist). Both women are SpaceX engineers.

In just over 24 hours from launch, Polaris Dawn broke numerous altitude records:

• It reached an apogee of 870 miles (1,400 km), the farthest anyone has been from Earth since the Apollo 17 mission more than half a century ago.
• It surpassed the 1966 Gemini 11 mission, where two NASA astronauts flew over the Earth at an altitude of more than 850 miles (1,373 km).
• It’s the farthest a manned commercial spacecraft has ever gone.
• It’s also the farthest two women have ever been from Earth, given that no female flew on any of the Apollo missions.

On its third day of flight, Polaris Dawn made history with the first commercial spacewalk, again breaking several records:

• It was the first extravehicular activity by a private spacecraft and was performed by civilians.
• This was the highest spacewalk in Earth orbit, surpassing those of the Space Shuttle or Gemini missions.
• It was the first time that four people were exposed to the vacuum of space at the same time, considering the Crew Dragon spacecraft has no airlock and the entire cabin had to be depressurized before opening the hatch.
• For this same reason, it was the first time a spacecraft with an oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere was fully depressurized.
• Naturally, crew members weren’t directly exposed–they tested SpaceX’s new pressurized suits for the first time.

What happens next? The Polaris Dawn mission is scheduled to make its return on Sunday. After landing, the crew members will undergo various tests (similar to those done with the Inspiration4 crew) to study the effects of radiation on their bodies.

This mission will be particularly interesting because the four astronauts have passed through the inner Van Allen belt via the South Atlantic Anomaly, a high-radiation zone that International Space Station astronauts don’t encounter.

For the upcoming Polaris mission, experts expect a more complex spacewalk, potentially with at least one astronaut completely outside the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The third mission is planned to be on a Starship, the giant, fully reusable rocket ship SpaceX is developing in southeast Texas.

Image | SpaceX

Related | Elon Musk’s Starship Opened an Unprecedented Hole in the Ionosphere, Russian Researchers Say