SpaceX Makes History: World's First Civilian Spacewalk by Non-Professional Astronauts | WPN World People News

Spacewalks have traditionally been high-risk tasks reserved for professional astronauts. However, on the morning of the 12th Eastern Time, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission team made history with the first-ever civilian spacewalk conducted by non-professional astronauts! This commercial spacewalk, carried out by a private spacecraft, marks a significant leap forward in the commercial space industry.

At 6:52 AM Eastern Time on the 12th, four untrained civilians aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft conducted this daring and dangerous first civilian spacewalk at an altitude of about 700 kilometers above Earth. Leading the spacewalk was 41-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, who exited the spacecraft for approximately 15 minutes before returning. Following him, 30-year-old SpaceX senior engineer Sarah Gillis stepped out for a 20-minute spacewalk. During this time, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott Poteet and SpaceX senior engineer Anna Menon remained inside the spacecraft.

Due to the absence of an airlock on the spacecraft, the Crew Dragon was fully depressurized before the spacewalk began, exposing the astronauts to the vacuum of space. All four astronauts relied on ultra-thin spacesuits developed by SpaceX, which were connected to the spacecraft via oxygen supply tubes. Although the spacewalk itself lasted only 30 minutes, the preparation took as long as two hours. The entire spacewalk was live-streamed on SpaceX's Platform X website.

The Crew Dragon also ventured to the Van Allen radiation belts, located 1,400 kilometers from Earth, where it remained for 10 hours to test whether SpaceX's new spacesuits could withstand radiation, laying the groundwork for future Mars exploration. In addition to this first civilian spacewalk and spacesuit performance tests, the Polaris Dawn mission team also conducted nearly 40 experiments related to Starlink communications.