Tech Billionaire And Crew Mark First Private Spacewalk With Historic Journey

A billionaire spacewalker and his crew returned to Earth on Sunday, concluding a five-day journey that took them higher than any human has travelled since NASA's moon missions.

SpaceX's capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas before dawn. The crew included tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers, and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.

The team executed the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth. This altitude is higher than both the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft reached a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers) after launching on Tuesday.

Isaacman became the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the first one by the former Soviet Union in 1965. SpaceX's Sarah Gillis followed as the 265th. Until now, only professional astronauts had conducted spacewalks.
"We are mission complete," Isaacman radioed as their capsule floated in the water, waiting for recovery.

This was SpaceX's first attempt at a splashdown near the Dry Tortugas, a group of islands 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Key West. To mark this occasion, SpaceX employees brought a large green turtle balloon to Mission Control in Hawthorne, California. Normally, they aim closer to Florida's coast, but poor weather forecasts for two weeks led them to choose this new location.

During Thursday's commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule's hatch was open for just half an hour. Isaacman emerged up to his waist to test SpaceX's new spacesuit briefly. Gillis followed, standing knee-high and flexing her arms and legs for several minutes. Earlier in the week, Gillis also performed a violin piece in orbit.

Testing New Spacesuit Technology

The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, much shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of this time was spent depressurizing and repressurizing the capsule. Even Anna Menon and Scott "Kidd" Poteet, who stayed strapped inside, wore spacesuits.

SpaceX views this brief exercise as an initial step in testing spacesuit technology for future longer missions to Mars.

This mission marked Isaacman's second chartered flight with SpaceX; he has two more planned under his Polaris program named after the North Star. He financed his first spaceflight in 2021, taking contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising over $250 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
For this recent Polaris Dawn mission, Isaacman shared costs with SpaceX but hasn't disclosed how much he spent.