Cape Canaveral, Florida – A billionaire began the first private spacewalk Thursday, partnering with SpaceX for the risky maneuver hundreds of miles above Earth.
Technology entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his team waited for their capsule to depressurize before opening the hatch. Isaacman was the first to go out, joining a small, elite group of people who had performed spacewalks, which until now included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
The four-member crew donned SpaceX’s new suits to protect them from the harsh vacuum. They launched Tuesday from Florida and went farther from Earth than anyone since NASA astronauts reached the moon. The orbit was cut in half, to 458 miles (737 kilometers) for departure.
The spacewalk was the centerpiece of a five-day flight funded by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, capping years of development toward colonizing Mars and other planets.
His first space test, expected to last about two hours, involved more stretching than walking. The plan called for Isaacman to step out of the capsule but keep one foot or hand in contact with the craft at all times, while flexing his arms and legs to see how the new spacesuit held up. The hatch had a walker-like structure for added support.
After about 15 minutes outside, Isaacman was scheduled to be replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis to follow suit.
Each had 12-foot (3.6-meter) cables connecting them to the spacecraft, but they were not intended to be deployed or hung by the end, unlike on the International Space Station, where astronauts typically float out to make repairs in much lower orbit.
More and more wealthy passengers are shelling out huge sums of money to ride on private rockets and experience a few minutes of zero gravity. Others have spent tens of millions of dollars to stay a few days or even weeks in space. Space experts and risk analysts say it’s inevitable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalks, considered one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight — second only to launch and reentry — but also the most thrilling.
Thursday’s operation had been planned in detail, with little room for error. Testing new spacesuits and using a new spacecraft for spacewalks increased the risk. So did the fact that the entire capsule had been exposed to the vacuum of space.
Former U.S. Air Force Thunderbird pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Space X engineer Anna Menon stayed strapped into their seats to monitor from inside. All four underwent intense training before the trip.
Isaacman, 41, the CEO and founder of credit card processing company Shift4, has declined to say how much he spent on the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he has named Polaris, with the nickname Polaris Dawn for the first mission. SpaceX’s first private flight in 2021 carried contest winners and a cancer survivor.
As of Thursday, only 263 people from 12 countries had performed a spacewalk. The first was Alexei Leonov of the Soviet Union in 1965, followed a few months later by American Ed White.