SpaceX Polaris Dawn Crew Completes Historic Civilian Spacewalk

Commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis each spent a few minutes outside the Dragon capsule, performing tests on their spacesuits.

Jack Daleo

Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 04:06 PM ET

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Edited By: tccjeremy

Key Takeaways:

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission achieved the first spacewalk by civilian astronauts, with Commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis performing the EVA.
The spacewalk was uniquely risky as the Dragon capsule lacks an airlock, requiring all four crew members to be exposed to the vacuum of space during the procedure.
This mission, reaching an altitude higher than the ISS, served as a crucial test for new SpaceX-developed EVA suits and advances commercial space capabilities vital for future long-duration missions, lunar colonization, and NASA's Artemis program.

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The four-person crew of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission made history on Thursday morning by completing the first spacewalk with civilian astronauts.

Commander Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of Shift4 Payments who purchased the five-day orbital flight from SpaceX, and mission specialist Sarah Gillis, one of two SpaceX engineers who are the company’s first employees to fly to space, exited SpaceX’s Dragon capsule one at a time, each spending about 12 minutes outside. The astronauts were traveling at 17,500 mph at an altitude more than 450 miles above Earth, higher than the International Space Station.