Sept. 12 (UPI) — The Polaris Dawn crew was set to embark on the first-ever commercial spacewalk early Thursday morning.
Commander Jared Isaacman and crew member Sarah Gillis will take part in the spacewalk which is the first extravehicular activity, or EVA, to make use of commercially developed hardware, procedures and a new SpaceX EVA spacesuit, SpaceX said.
Isaacman and Gillis will each spend 15 to 20 minutes outside the Dragon after oxygen has been taken out of the spaceship and its door opened.
The spacewalk overall is expected to last about two hours.
Watch Dragon’s first spacewalk with the @PolarisProgram’s Polaris Dawn crew https://t.co/svdJRkGN7K— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
Since the Dragon spacecraft does not have an airlock, the entire interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space during the spacewalk. Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and crew member Anna Menon will also be wearing their spacesuits as well.
Cameras mounted inside and outside the Drago, along with others attached to the spacewalkers’ suits are expected to provide a unique view of space and Earth some 200 miles higher than the International Space Station.
The private astronauts left Earth on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The crew on Wednesday completed its first goal of orbiting at an altitude of 870 miles above Earth.
The private space mission already set records for establishing the farthest orbit around Earth since the Apollo era and the farthest a woman has been in space.
