Polaris Dawn" mission First amateur astronaut has completed his spacewalk

For the first time ever, a privately financed spacewalk took place on Thursday. Everyone is now safely back in the space capsule.

After a delay of several hours, an external mission on a "Dragon" spacecraft from the SpaceX company has begun. The spacewalk has begun, SpaceX announced on Platform X. US billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis tested a new space suit under real conditions 700 kilometers from Earth.

He and Gillis were connected to the spaceship via a 3.60-meter-long tether. For safety reasons, however, they had to hold on to the capsule or a ladder with one hand or foot at all times.

SpaceX is the first private company to organize a spacewalk. So far, only the space agencies of twelve countries have managed this. Since the Russian Alexei Leonov became the first person to go into space in 1965, a total of 262 people have followed him.

The exit from the "Dragon" capsule cannot be compared with the external missions on the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts float into space for repairs.

Unlike the ISS, the "Dragon" capsule does not have an airlock, meaning that all four people on board were exposed to the vacuum of space when the hatch was opened. After the spacewalkers returned, the hatch was closed and the cabin atmosphere was restored.

For Isaacman, this was the riskiest part of the whole flight: "You can't afford to do anything wrong on this journey or you'll go off course."

dpa