New spacesuits, untested astronauts, and a lot that can go wrong make this five-day mission unusually complex, but with a potentially great reward.
A SpaceX rocket lifted off early Tuesday morning carrying four astronauts who hope to conduct the world’s first commercial spacewalk. The launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida marks the beginning of one of SpaceX’s highest-stakes missions yet.
If all goes as expected, in a matter of days, Internet entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis will be the first private astronauts to exit their spacecraft to float above the Earth in spacesuits. They’ll be treated to a majestic view of the planet that’s only been seen by professional astronauts working on official missions from their space agencies.
But experts warn there’s plenty that could go wrong. Spacewalking carries unique risks compared to traveling inside a capsule or visiting the International Space Station. This mission will use several components that have never been tested in space before, including the spacesuits themselves. And it will require skill and cool-headed thinking from the astronauts involved, three of whom have never been to space at all.
Conducting a spacewalk like this is a “risky adventure,” acknowledges Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, who previously headed NASA’s human spaceflight operations.
But he insists that the company is ready: “We’re going to do it as safely as we can, and we’ve got the right protocols and we’ve done the right testing to get ready to go,” Gerstenmaier told reporters at a press briefing last month.
A giant leap, for a price
The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, is a giant leap for commercial space travel. To date, most space tourists have either taken a brief suborbital journey that provides a few moments of weightlessness, or (for significantly more money) traveled to the International Space Station. Isaacman spent a few days in 2021 orbiting earth in a SpaceX capsule.
He’s now paid an undisclosed sum of money for this mission, which is the first of three scheduled as part of the Polaris program. Isaacman had floated the idea of the second mission being used to service the Hubble Space telescope, but NASA recently said the agency would not pursue it at this time because they’re not sure it’s worth the risks.
On this mission, all four astronauts will don new SpaceX spacesuits before purging the air from their Dragon capsule. Isaacman, the mission commander, and Gillis will then open the hatch and float briefly out of the capsule, connected by umbilical cords that will supply them with oxygen. The mission’s pilot, Scott Poteet, and medical officer and SpaceX employee Anna Menon will remain inside the capsule.
