Watch SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform their first private spacewalk on September 12
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Update for 7:41 a.m. EDT: SpaceX’s private Polaris Dawn astronauts completed the world’s first commercial spacewalk on September 12. American billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis each spent just over 10 minutes climbing out of the hatch of their Dragon capsule. Read our full story and watch the amazing video.
The first-ever private spacewalk will take place early Thursday morning (September 12), and you can watch the historic action live.
The groundbreaking extravehicular activity (EVA) is being conducted by Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, two members of the four-person Polaris Dawn mission that launched into Earth orbit early Tuesday morning (September 10) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 5:58 a.m. EDT (09:58 a.m. GMT), according to SpaceX. You can watch it live here on Space.com or directly from the company. Coverage will begin around 4:58 a.m. EDT (08:58 a.m. GMT).
The spacewalk will take about two hours from start to finish, SpaceX and Polaris Dawn officials said, including the initial venting of the mission’s Crew Dragon capsule until it is repressurized.
Related: This is how SpaceX’s historic private spacewalk Polaris Dawn will unfold
Crew Dragon has no airlock, so its entire interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space during the EVA. This means all four crew members – Isaacman, Gillis, Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Anna Menon – will don their new EVA suits from SpaceX.
However, only Isaacman and Gillis will exit the capsule. They will do so one at a time, not simultaneously, and each of them will stay outside for 15 to 20 minutes, Isaacman said during a pre-launch press conference on Aug. 26. And both plan to maintain contact with Crew Dragon throughout the EVA – for example, using the newly installed “Skywalker” handrails.
“We’re not just going to float around,” Isaacman said.
The main goal of the spacewalk is to test SpaceX’s new spacesuits, which the company has developed itself and plans to use on various missions into Earth orbit and beyond.
“We realize that it could be in 10 versions and a number of evolutions of the suit, but that one day someone could wear a version of it that could walk on Mars,” Isaacman said on Aug. 26. “And it feels like a great honor again to have the opportunity to test it on this flight.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 1:35 a.m. ET on Sept. 12 with the new scheduled EVA time of 5:58 a.m. EDT.
