A daredevil billionaire rocketed back into orbit Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture farther than anyone since NASA’s Apollo moonshots. Unlike his previous chartered flight, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman shared the cost with SpaceX this time around, which included developing and testing brand new spacesuits to withstand the harsh vacuum of space.
If all goes as planned, it will mark the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk, although they won’t stray far from the capsule. Spacewalks, considered one of the riskiest parts of spaceflight, have been the domain of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union initiated one in 1965, closely followed by the U.S. Today, such activities are routine at the International Space Station.
Isaacman, along with two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot, launched before dawn aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. The spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.
The crew aims to reach an altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers), far beyond the International Space Station and surpassing the Earth-orbiting record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who journeyed to the moon have ventured farther. They plan to spend 10 hours at that height, a region filled with extreme radiation and space debris, before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half. Even at a lower altitude of 435 miles (700 kilometers), their orbit would eclipse both the space station and the Hubble Space Telescope, which the highest shuttle missions reached.
All four astronauts wore SpaceX’s spacewalking suits since the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurized for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the perilous conditions of space. Isaacman and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly exiting the hatch, testing their custom suits by twisting their bodies. During the spacewalk, both will always maintain a hand or foot on the capsule or an attached support structure resembling the top of a pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 12-foot (3.6-meter) tethers and no jetpack stunts. NASA’s suits at the space station are the only ones equipped with jetpacks, intended for emergencies.
Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside the Dragon capsule. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut missions, this one will conclude with a splashdown off the Florida coast.
“We’re sending you hugs from the ground,” Launch Director Frank Messina radioed after the crew reached orbit. “May you make history and come home safely.”
Isaacman responded, “We wouldn’t be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX and everyone else cheering us on.”
During a preflight news conference, Isaacman, CEO and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4, declined to disclose his financial contribution to the flight. “Not a chance,” he remarked.
SpaceX partnered with Isaacman to fund the development of the spacesuits and cover associated costs, according to William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed NASA’s space mission operations.
“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” Gerstenmaier stated.
This mission is the first of three that Isaacman purchased from Elon Musk about 2 1/2 years ago, soon after his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. Isaacman had funded that tourist trip for an undisclosed amount, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor, raising hundreds of millions for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the process.
The development of the spacesuits took longer than expected, delaying this first Polaris Dawn flight. Training was extensive; Poteet said it rivaled anything he experienced during his Air Force career.
As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Gillis and Menon had previously helped Isaacman’s team, as well as NASA’s professional crews, prepare for their missions.
“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,” the 41-year-old Isaacman said before liftoff.
Poor weather conditions caused a two-week delay. The crew required favorable forecasts not only for the launch but also for the splashdown days later. With limited supplies and no possibility of reaching the space station, they had no choice but to wait for better conditions.
