AFP Videos – France
SpaceX Makes History with First Private Spacewalk
SpaceX conducted the first private spacewalk in history on Thursday with its Polaris Dawn mission, with two crew members venturing out of their ship in their white and gray spacesuits in a historic image. On a live video feed from the company, American billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission’s commander, emerged first from the capsule, holding onto a metal structure installed on the front of it for the occasion. “It’s beautiful,” he said in front of impressive views of Earth, while he was about 700 km above the ground, much higher than the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis then took over, and also made movements to test SpaceX’s brand new spacewalk suits, one of the mission’s main objectives. Both remained outside the Dragon spacecraft for about ten minutes, which was then re-pressurized. The spacewalk ended about 1 hour 45 minutes after it began. Two other passengers, pilot Scott Poteet and fellow SpaceX employee Anna Menon, were also exposed to the vacuum of space as soon as the ship’s hatch opened, as it is not equipped with an airlock. The suits are connected by cords to the capsule to provide the crew members with oxygen. The Polaris Dawn mission of Elon Musk’s company was launched under the leadership of billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, and with his financial participation, of an undisclosed amount. It marks a new step in commercial space exploration. NASA boss Bill Nelson immediately congratulated SpaceX and said this event represented “a giant step for the commercial space industry”. – New suits – The four crew members underwent more than two years of training to prepare. Since the first so-called “extravehicular” exit in 1965, all had so far been carried out by professional astronauts. Around the ISS, however, these exits last long hours, and the astronauts perform much more technical tasks. The suits of the four adventurers are derived from those already used by SpaceX inside its ships and have been modified to be able to withstand extreme temperatures or improve their mobility. They are also equipped with a camera, and information on the pressure, temperature and humidity of the suit is directly displayed in the helmet. SpaceX hopes to be able to produce “millions” of them, in order to allow humanity to become a multi-planetary species, its stated goal. “Someday, someone could carry a version of them to Mars,” so it’s “a great honor” to test them, Jared Isaacman, CEO of the financial company Shift4, said in August during a press conference. – Two other missions – The mission took off from Florida on Tuesday for about five days. On the first day, the capsule ventured up to 1,400 km in altitude, further than any crew since the Apollo lunar missions, more than half a century ago. Beyond their spacewalk, the crew must also test laser communication by satellites between the spacecraft and SpaceX’s vast constellation of Starlink satellites, providing internet from space. They are also to perform some 36 scientific experiments, such as testing contact lenses to measure changes in intraocular pressure. Polaris Dawn is the first in the Polaris program, announced two and a half years ago by Jared Isaacman, who advocates the usefulness of private investment to accelerate the conquest of the cosmos. The program is to include three missions in total. After a second similar to the one currently underway, the third is to be the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket, currently under development and intended for trips to the Moon and Mars. la/ev
