A four-person crew of civilians on board SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission unlocked the hatch of their capsule and made history as the first group of non-government astronauts to conduct a spacewalk.
SpaceX hosted a live webcast of the event — also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA) — which kicked off at 6:12 a.m. ET.
The entire SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle propelling and protecting the crew was depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space — a dangerous and historic milestone in the Polaris Dawn crew’s five-day journey through Earth’s orbit. The mission has already set records, traveling farther into space than any human since NASA’s Apollo program concluded more than 50 years ago.
The crewmates — which includes Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn’s financer; his close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis — had prepared for this spacewalk since taking flight at 5:23 a.m. ET Tuesday.
The team slowly underwent what’s called a “pre-breathe” process, a step intended to purge their blood of nitrogen to prevent the gas from bubbling — a potentially lethal condition — as they experienced the vacuum of space.
Isaacman exited the capsule first just before 7 a.m. ET.
