Today, two astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission are set to make history by conducting the first-ever commercial spacewalk at an altitude of approximately 435 miles above Earth. Jared Isaacman, the mission leader and funder, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis will venture outside the Crew Dragon capsule for 15 and 20 minutes, respectively. Their crewmates, Scott Poteet and Anna Menon, will remain inside the vehicle to monitor their status and ensure a smooth operation.
The spacewalk, which is scheduled to begin at 4:50 AM Eastern time, will be live-streamed on SpaceX’s website and on X. In the event of a cancellation, the astronauts will have another opportunity to perform the spacewalk on September 13 at the same time.
As the Crew Dragon does not have an airlock, the astronauts will have to depressurize the vehicle before opening one of its hatches. All four crew members will wear SpaceX’s upgraded extravehicular activity (EVA) suits, which feature new joints that provide greater mobility. The suits also come equipped with a heads-up display (HUD) and camera, as well as a Faraday layer that protects against electric fields.
The spacewalk will serve as a crucial test for the EVA suits, which are designed to withstand the harsh conditions of outer space. The Polaris Dawn crew’s mobility tests will help pave the way for future long-duration missions and the development of scalable spacesuit designs. “The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary,” according to the Polaris Dawn website.
The entire operation, from the beginning of the spacewalk to the repressurization of the Crew Dragon, is expected to last approximately two hours. The Polaris Dawn mission, which launched on September 10 after multiple delays, aims to achieve several objectives, including sending a crew farther than any Dragon mission before and reaching parts of the Van Allen radiation belt.
