The mission Polaris Dawn is marking a before and after in commercial space flights: after breaking the absolute orbital height record yesterday, today it attempts the first private spacewalk; that is, carried out by private astronauts, who do not belong to any space agency such as NASA or ESA. It will be the most risky maneuver of the Polaris Dawn and is scheduled to begin this morning at 11:58. At that time, everything should be ready for the hatch to open. Resiliencea Crew Dragon spacecraft that Space X has adapted for this innovative five-day space flight, which took off on Tuesday from Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA).
Since this space capsule does not have an airlock compartment, opening the hatch will create a complete vacuum inside the spacecraft and its four crew members — clad in the new SpacsX spacesuits — will get a feel for what it’s like to be in open space. But only two of the astronauts, Sarah Gillis and Jared Isaacman, will be able to leave the ship, and they are scheduled to take several spacewalks in 15- to 20-minute shifts.
If Gillis and Isaacman, both Americans, complete the first private spacewalks in history today, they will have entered an exclusive club, until now reserved for astronauts from NASA, ESA and the Russian, Canadian, Chinese and Japanese space agencies. This is the second space mission for Jared Isaacman (41 years old), a technology magnate who is also an airline pilot and commercial astronaut. As is now the case with the Polaris DawnIsaacman also financed and was the commander in 2021 of Inspiration4SpaceX’s first orbital mission with an all-civilian crew. Sarah Gillis (30 years old) is an aerospace engineer at Elon Musk’s company, where she is responsible for the astronaut training program and also has extensive experience from the ground in space mission control. It is her first space flight and she has already become, together with her mission partner Anna Menon, the woman to have flown the furthest from Earth.
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