SpaceX makes history with first spacewalks by private citizens

AFP | Washington, United States

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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 industry. The 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 era.

With the four-member crew’s 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 GMT. A 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 him.

“SpaceX, 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 applause. It 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 Station.

“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant US space economy,” NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on X.