SpaceX creates history with first-ever private spacewalk

A pioneering private crew made history Thursday by performing the first commercial spacewalk with NASA hailing it as a giant leap forward for the space industryThe SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission led by fintech billionaire Jared Isaacman launched Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida journeying deeper into the cosmos than any humans in half a century since the Apollo eraWith the fourmember crews Dragon spacecraft adjusted to an orbit with a high of 434 miles 700 kilometers pure oxygen began flowing into their suits Thursday marking the official start of their extravehicular activity EVA at 1012 GMTA short time later Isaacman swung open the hatch and climbed through gripping the hand and footholds of a structure known as Skywalker as a breathtaking view of Earth unfolded below himSpaceX back at home we all have a lot of work to do but from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world he told mission control in Hawthorne California where teams erupted in applauseIt was yet another major milestone for SpaceX the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002 Since then SpaceX has grown into a powerhouse that in 2020 beat aerospace giant Boeing in delivering a spaceship to provide rides for NASA astronauts to the International Space StationTodays success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASAs longterm goal to build a vibrant US space economy NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on XSuit testsPrior to the hatch opening the crew underwent a prebreathe procedure to remove nitrogen from their bloodstream preventing decompression sickness Cabin pressure was then gradually lowered to align with the vacuum of spaceIsaacman and crewmate Sarah Gillis a SpaceX engineer took turns outside the vehicle spending a few minutes performing mobility tests on SpaceXs nextgeneration suits that boast headsup displays helmet cameras and enhanced joint mobility systems before returning insideExtravehicular activity officially ended after an hour and 46 minutes following cabin repressurizationWhile it marked a first for the commercial sector the spacewalk fell short of the daring feats from the early space era Early spacewalkers including the first Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965 floated tethered to their spacecraft while a select few Space Shuttle astronauts used jetpacks to fly completely untetheredSince Dragon doesnt have an airlock the entire crew were exposed to the vacuum of space Mission pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped in throughout as they monitored vital support systemsThe risk is greater than zero thats for sure and its certainly higher than anything that has been accomplished on a commercial basis former NASA administrator Sean OKeefe told AFPFirst of three Polaris missionsThe spacewalk followed an audacious first phase of the mission during which the Dragon spacecraft reached a peak altitude of 870 miles three times higher than the International Space Station in a region teeming with dangerous highenergy particlesAll four underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission logging hundreds of hours on simulators as well as skydiving scuba diving and summiting an Ecuadoran volcanoUpcoming tasks include testing laserbased satellite communications between the spacecraft and the vast Starlink satellite constellation and completing dozens of experiments including tests on contact lenses with embedded microelectronics to monitor changes in eye pressure and shape in spacePolaris Dawn is the first of three missions under the Polaris program a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceXAlso Read Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore stuck in space How can it affect their health Experts explainThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever