A daring billionaire launched back into space on Tuesday with the goal of completing the first private spacewalk and traveling farther than anyone since NASA’s Apollo missions.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who previously funded a private space mission, shared the cost with SpaceX for this trip, which also involved designing and testing new spacesuits to withstand the vacuum of space.
If successful, this will be the first time private citizens perform a spacewalk, although they’ll remain close to their capsule. Spacewalks, one of the most dangerous aspects of space travel, have traditionally been conducted by professional astronauts since the Soviet Union’s first in 1965, followed shortly after by the U.S. Now, they are routinely carried out at the International Space Station.
Isaacman, along with two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida before dawn. The spacewalk is planned for Thursday, during the five-day mission.
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Their plan includes spending 10 hours at a high altitude — an area filled with extreme radiation and debris — before lowering their orbit. Even at 435 miles (700 kilometers), their altitude will surpass both the space station and the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest point shuttle astronauts ever reached.
The crew wore SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits, as the Dragon capsule will be depressurized for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing them all to the hazardous space environment. Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis will take turns exiting the hatch to test the suits. During the spacewalk, they will stay tethered to the capsule or a support structure and avoid floating freely. Unlike NASA’s space station suits, SpaceX’s don’t include jetpacks for emergency use.
Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will supervise the spacewalk from inside the capsule. The mission will conclude with a splashdown off Florida’s coast, similar to previous SpaceX astronaut flights.
After reaching orbit, Isaacman thanked SpaceX’s team, stating, “We wouldn’t be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX and everyone else cheering us on.”
At a preflight press conference, Isaacman, founder of Shift4, declined to disclose how much he spent on the mission. He and SpaceX shared the costs of developing the new spacesuits, according to SpaceX vice president William Gerstenmaier, who emphasized the private sector’s growing role in space exploration.
This mission is the first of three trips Isaacman purchased from Elon Musk’s SpaceX following his initial spaceflight in 2021.
That trip, which included contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor, raised significant funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The development of the spacesuits took longer than expected, causing delays for this mission. Isaacman and his team underwent extensive training for the mission, which pilot Poteet said was comparable to his Air Force experience.
As SpaceX trainers, Gillis and Menon helped prepare Isaacman and others for the flight, including NASA astronauts.
Reflecting on the mission, Isaacman expressed his hopes for future space exploration, saying, “I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our solar system.”
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