Mission commander Jared Isaacman emerges from Crew Dragon during the Polaris Dawn spacewalk on Sept. 12, 2024. Credit: SpaceX
The first-ever commercial spacewalk is in the books! Last month on Sept. 12, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission took four astronauts on a five-day journey into Earth orbit, completing the world’s first private spacewalk and reaching a peak altitude not seen by a human crew since the Apollo program. After reaching a record-high altitude of 870 miles, Crew Dragon Resilience retreated to a lower orbit and later depressurized for the spacewalk. Mission commander Jared Isaacman opened the outer hatch and emerged to a breathtaking vista of Earth. The spacewalk lasted nearly two hours, with mission specialist Sarah Gillis joining Isaacman to conduct spacesuit mobility tests. “SpaceX, back at home we have a lot of work to do, but from here it looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said while looking down on Earth.