For the first time in history, two non-professional astronauts have performed a “spacewalk”

They will be able to say that they were the first space tourists. Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis have completed the first spacewalk during a private mission. After the necessary preparations and checks, which began …

Jack Williams

Written by: Jack Williams

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For the first time in history, two non-professional astronauts have performed a "spacewalk"

They will be able to say that they were the first space tourists. Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis have completed the first spacewalk during a private mission. After the necessary preparations and checks, which began at 12:12 Italian time, the mission proceeded regularly.

SpaceX’s two Polaris Dawn crew members, billionaire Commander Isaacman and Mission Specialist Gillis, supported remotely by Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon, have exited Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, venturing, one at a time, briefly outside the spacecraft and into space.

In a video broadcast live by SpaceX, the American billionaire emerged first from the capsule. “It’s beautiful,” he commented from an altitude of about 700 kilometers above Earth, much higher than the International Space Station (ISS), which is about 400 kilometers away. The mission has pushed the limits. The goal is to understand how the human body can react during a trip in space.

Who funded the mission

Their journey began on September 10 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacewalk was scheduled to last only about 30 minutes, but the procedures to prepare and safely complete it lasted an hour and 46 minutes. After the cabin depressurization procedure, the hatch was opened at 12:49, and a few minutes later Isaacman prepared to exit the shuttle. His ‘walk’ lasted about 10 minutes, and then it was Gillis’s turn. Both performed a series of movements to check the behavior of the new suits, remaining attached to the shuttle by cables about 3.5 meters long that provide oxygen, power and communications.

At 13:17 both extravehicular activities ended and the hatch was closed, allowing the cabin repressurization procedure to begin. The leak check phase also revealed no problems. For the entire duration of the spacewalk, mission pilot Kidd Poteet and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon remained inside the Crew Dragon, monitoring the life support systems. The mission was funded by Isaacman himself and involves SpaceX.

Jack Williams

Jack Williams

Jack Williams established himself as the editor-in-chief of The Vermilion with rigorous journalistic traits and an incessant quest for truth. His career began as an investigative reporter, where he quickly gained a reputation for his in-depth research and insightful articles. Williams takes his role at The Vermilion very seriously. Since he became editor-in-chief, he has set an editorial line based on impartiality, factual accuracy, and context relevance; this has established The Vermilion as a reference for political, economic, and global news. Under his leadership, the media continues its mission of reporting news with accuracy and equanimity, giving a voice to those who are often overlooked by large-scale media. Jack dedicates himself to fulfilling this mandate with passion, rigour, and unwavering determination.

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