Venturing into the void of space was a “moving experience,” American billionaire Jared Isaacman said Tuesday, days after completing the first private spacewalk in history, during SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission.
“The opening of the hatch, what an emotional experience, what a sensory overload,” the commander of this mission said during a live chat on the social network X, describing the “stunning vision of the Earth, with no other barrier than the visor” of his helmet.
“As soon as the hatch was opened, we all immediately felt the cold, as the air started to escape from the ship,” added her teammate Sarah Gillis, an engineer at SpaceX, who also spent about ten minutes outside the capsule.
One of the main goals was to test SpaceX’s first-ever spacewalk suits.
Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis performed simple movements to assess their mobility while remaining attached to a metal structure installed on the front of the capsule.
“What we did was at the bottom of the complexity scale,” acknowledged the 41-year-old billionaire, who is passionate about space exploration. “But what was so different and so special was that it was a commercial venture” and not an operation backed by “global superpowers.”
But this project financed by him and SpaceX “benefits all of humanity,” he defended.
Now, “you have a suit that works in space,” and with the data collected, “better suits” will be developed, “until you have suits that people can use on the moon or Mars one day,” he added.
The mission, which returned to Earth on Sunday after five days in orbit, ventured up to 1,400 kilometers in altitude, further than any crew since the Apollo lunar missions.
It carried a total of four passengers, along with fellow SpaceX employee Anna Menon and pilot Scott Poteet. All were exposed to the vacuum of space during the spacewalk, as the capsule was not equipped with an airlock.
Jared Isaacman also described Tuesday the feeling of danger felt in the face of the blackness of the cosmos, “probably similar to the feeling experienced in the 1400s when looking at the Atlantic.”
“This sense of danger and discomfort should not be a deterrent, but rather an incentive to take up the challenge,” he said. “As explorers have done throughout human history.”
