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Polaris Dawn astronauts complete first spacewalk by private citizens

By T.K. Randall
September 12, 2024 ·  148 comments

The first ever spacewalk conducted by a private citizen. Image Credit: SpaceX The mission - which launched two days ago - saw billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, along with retired pilot Scott Poteet, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis and SpaceX operations lead Anna Menon, soar into the heavens aboard a Crew Dragon capsule.

Their trip into space, which remains ongoing, has so far gone without a hitch and earlier today both Isaacman and Gillis became the first private citizens ever to conduct a spacewalk.

On top of this, the crew also reached a distance of 870 miles above the Earth, which is the furthest any human has been since the end of the Apollo program over 50 years ago.

"It's gorgeous," Isaacman said upon emerging from the capsule during his spacewalk. "Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world."Polaris Dawn is actually the first of three planned missions, with the second potentially aiming to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope by moving it into a higher orbit and the third being the first ever crewed flight of Elon Musk's ambitious new Starship space vehicle.

The mission also enabled SpaceX to trial its new spacesuits on an actual spacewalk.

"We all look forward to our friends at the Artemis program to take us to even greater heights," said Isaacman.

You can check out footage of the spacewalk below.


Source: Washington Post | Comments (148)

Tags: Polaris, SpaceX