LOS
ANGELES, Sept. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Polaris
Dawn crew, after launching into space earlier this week, completed
the first commercial spacewalk at 7:58 am
EDT today. Wearing newly-designed SpaceX extravehicular
activity (EVA) suits, the crew began their approximately two-hour
operation at 5:12 a.m. EDT while
traveling at 17,500 miles per hour in an elliptical orbit of 190 x
700 km above the Earth. This spacewalk represents an important
milestone of the Polaris Program, a developmental program designed
to further the advancement of human spaceflight.
The crew began preparations for the spacewalk shortly after
liftoff, through a two-day pre-breathe process designed to prevent
decompression sickness by slowly acclimatizing the crew to lower
pressures while slowly increasing oxygen levels within the
spacecraft's cabin. Once complete, the crew began preparations for
the spacewalk, which included donning their EVA suits, completing
suit leak checks, and venting Dragon down to vacuum.
After opening the hatch, the Polaris Dawn crew became the first
four astronauts to be exposed to the vacuum of space at the same
time. Over the next approximately twenty minutes, Commander
Jared Isaacman and Mission
Specialist Sarah Gillis egressed the
vehicle, completed a series of tests designed to evaluate the
suit's mobility, thermal systems and the Dragon mobility aid
"Skywalker" before returning to the cabin and closing the hatch.
Mission Pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet and Mission Specialist and
Medical Officer Anna Menon supported
Isaacman and Gillis throughout the entire operation monitoring
vital support systems.
Once the hatch was closed, Dragon was re-pressurized, cabin
oxygen and pressure levels confirmed, and the crew was able to
remove their EVA suits, officially completing the suit testing
alongside the first commercial spacewalk and the first EVA from a
Dragon spacecraft. The crew was supported throughout the entire EVA
by SpaceX teams in Hawthorne,
California.
During the spacewalk, Isaacman reflected on the experience:
"SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from
here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world."
Over the last two years, the Polaris Dawn crew worked alongside
SpaceX engineers throughout the development of the EVA suit. The
suits underwent hundreds of hours of testing, including in a
pressure and vacuum chamber to validate the pre-breathe protocol as
well as EVA suit performance. First unveiled in May 2024, the EVA suit evolved from SpaceX's
Intravehicular Activity (IVA) suit. The new EVA suit provides
greater mobility, a state-of-the-art helmet heads-up display (HUD)
and camera, new thermal management textiles, and materials borrowed
from SpaceX vehicles – specifically, Falcon's interstage and
Dragon's trunk. All of these enhancements to the EVA suit are part
of a scalable design for the millions of spacesuits required to
help make life multiplanetary.
"Today's EVA was the first time four humans were exposed to the
vacuum of space while completing the first-ever commercial
astronaut spacewalk from a commercially-produced spacecraft in
commercially-produced extravehicular activity suits," said
Stu Keech, Vice President of Dragon
at SpaceX. "This incredible milestone is all thanks to the hard
work of the crew and many SpaceX teams, all focused on a goal of
making life multiplanetary."
The Polaris Dawn mission will continue to provide additional
updates and milestones before the crew returns with a targeted
splashdown off the coast of Florida. The mission can be followed at
spacex.com/launches. To learn more about Polaris Dawn and see
updates throughout the mission, visit
https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/ and follow @PolarisProgram on X
and Instagram.
About Polaris Dawn
Polaris Dawn is the first of three
human spaceflights under the Polaris Program. The program is named
after Polaris, a constellation of three stars more commonly known
as the North Star, which has been a guiding light throughout human
history to help us navigate the world and inspire progress. The
mission is in support of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. To
learn more about Polaris Dawn, visit
https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/ and follow the mission on X
(@PolarisProgram) and Instagram (@PolarisProgram).
Photos for media usage:
Polaris Program Photos on
Flickr
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SOURCE Polaris Program