SpaceX astronauts complete first ever commercial spacewalk

Billionaire Jared Isaacman exited and re-entered SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft on Thursday afternoon, followed by senior space operations engineer Sarah Gillis. The duo made history by successfully completing the first commercial spacewalk.

Billionaire and mission commander Jared Isaacman was the first to leave the spacecraft at around 12.53pm Belgian time on Thursday afternoon, at an altitude of around 730 kilometres above Earth. "We all have a lot of work to do back home, but from here it looks like a perfect world," Isaacman said as he left the spacecraft.

He returned to the cabin after his ten-minute outing, and SpaceX mission specialist Sarah Gillis also exited the Crew Dragon.

It is the first time civilians have done a spacewalk. Isaacman and Gillis performed some dexterity tests with SpaceX's new spacesuits. Unlike spacewalks by trained astronauts, the duo stayed connected to Crew Dragon via an oxygen line the entire time.

1,400 km high

The other two crew members - Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, and SpaceX employee Anna Menon - remained inside the spacecraft during the spacewalk. They were exposed to the vacuum of space the entire time, which was also a first.

The spacecraft reached an altitude of 1,400 kilometres - the farthest a crew has travelled since the Apollo missions to the moon in the early 1970s. Gillis and Menon also made history by becoming the women to travel the farthest from Earth.

The private Polaris Dawn mission was funded by SpaceX and Isaacman. The crew received extensive training for the mission. This is a new step in commercial spaceflight. Until now, all spacewalks have been carried out by professional astronauts, not civilians.

^{PHOTO © SPACEX / AFP}