A group of private astronauts is preparing to carry out the first private spacewalk from a SpaceX capsule, marking a significant milestone for the company's most ambitious mission yet. The Polaris Dawn mission, led by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, includes a team consisting of a retired military pilot and two SpaceX engineers. The crew has been orbiting Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft since their launch early Tuesday morning from Florida. The spacewalk, scheduled for Thursday at 2:23 a.m. ET (0623 GMT), will take place at an altitude of 700 km (435 miles), with two astronauts stepping outside the capsule while the remaining two stay inside. During this time, the spacecraft will be depressurized, and the crew will rely on SpaceX's custom spacesuits for oxygen.
Jared Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder of the payment company Shift4, is funding the Polaris mission. Isaacman also financed the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, though he has not disclosed the cost for this mission, which is expected to run in the hundreds of millions, considering SpaceX's standard $55 million per seat for similar flights. Alongside Isaacman are mission pilot Scott Poteet, a 50-year-old retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and two SpaceX senior engineers, Sarah Gillis (30) and Anna Menon (38).
The Crew Dragon spacecraft made several orbits around Earth on Wednesday, with an elliptical path that ranged from as low as 190 km to as high as 1,400 km, making it the farthest humans have traveled from Earth since the Apollo missions in 1972. The spacecraft then adjusted its orbit to prepare for the spacewalk, lowering to 700 km and preparing for cabin depressurization. The crew also tested the mobility and functionality of their pressurized spacesuits in microgravity as part of their preparations.
During the spacewalk, Isaacman and Gillis will exit the Crew Dragon while remaining tethered to the spacecraft by oxygen lines, while Poteet and Menon will monitor from inside the cabin. This event marks a significant achievement in private space exploration, as spacewalks have historically been performed by highly trained government astronauts. To date, over 270 spacewalks have been conducted at the International Space Station (ISS) since 2000, with an additional 16 performed by Chinese astronauts on the Tiangong station. The first U.S. spacewalk occurred in 1965 aboard a Gemini capsule, using a similar procedure to what will be followed during the Polaris mission.
The astronauts on Polaris Dawn will also participate in scientific research, contributing to studies on the effects of deep space on the human body, building on decades of health research conducted by government astronauts on the ISS.
Since 2021, SpaceX's Crew Dragon has been the only U.S. vehicle capable of carrying astronauts into orbit and returning them safely, flying more than a dozen missions for NASA. SpaceX developed Crew Dragon as part of a NASA program aimed at establishing commercial U.S. spacecraft for ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS. Boeing’s Starliner, also developed under this program, has experienced delays. After a problematic test mission in June, Starliner returned to Earth empty, leaving its astronauts on the ISS until next year, when they will return on a Crew Dragon capsule.