Astronauts on Sept. 12 performed the first private spacewalk in history, exiting SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule as it orbited hundreds of miles above Earth.
Isaacman, a pilot and the founder of an electronic payment company, is helping fund the mission.
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said after emerging from the craft, with Earth in the background about 435 miles below him.
After a few minutes, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, took her turn in space.
Both astronauts were tethered to the capsule.
The spacewalk was streamed live by SpaceX.
SpaceX’s Anna Menon, 38, and retired Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, 50, are also on Dragon.
Previously, only government astronauts with several years of training had performed spacewalks.
Isaacman and Gillis ran tests on new SpaceX spacesuits, including evaluating the ability to hold positions and move in all directions. The goal of the spacewalk was to test the suits, according to the company.
The gray-and-white suits include improved features such as a heads-up display in the helmet.
The four people on Dragon are also set to conduct additional research during the five-day mission, including gathering data on radiation. The craft already reached an altitude of 874 miles, surpassing the record for a crewed mission not bound for the Moon and the farthest humans have traveled in space since the Apollo 17 flight to the Moon in 1972. It went down to a 435-mile position for the spacewalk.
Preparation for the spacewalk began soon after the Sept. 10 launch, with the crew slowly purging nitrogen from their bodies. The capsule was completely depressurized as the astronauts relied on their suits to keep them alive.
The spacewalk officially ended at about 8 a.m. Eastern time.
Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, said in a statement that the spacewalk “represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and [NASA’s] long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy.” NASA helped fund the development of Dragon starting about 10 years ago.
Musk congratulated the Polaris crew in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The crew has spent 2 1/2 years of training with SpaceX mission simulations and experiential learning in challenging, uncomfortable environments, according to Poteet.
“I can tell you without a doubt this has been some of the most challenging training that I’ve ever experienced,” Poteet said in Cape Canaveral before the launch.
The spacewalk took place as a record 19 astronauts orbited Earth, following Russia’s Soyuz MS-26 mission, which ferried two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut to the International Space Station on Sept. 11, bringing its headcount to 12. Three Chinese astronauts are aboard the Tiangong space station.
The first U.S. spacewalk in 1965, during the Gemini mission, used a procedure similar to the one planned for Polaris Dawn: The capsule was depressurized, the hatch opened, and a spacesuited astronaut ventured outside on a tether.
