SpaceX Polaris Dawn Crew Completes First Commercial Spacewalk

Key Takeaways

• The crew of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission completed the first commercial spacewalk Thursday morning.
• The mission launched Tuesday and is in the process of performing dozens of experiments during an orbit of up to five days.
• On board the Polaris Dawn flight are two SpaceX employees, a retired Air Force pilot, and a tech CEO who had been part of a previous SpaceX mission.

The astronauts on board the Polaris Dawn flight from Elon Musk's SpaceX that launched earlier this week spent time outside of their spacecraft Thursday morning in the first commercial spacewalk.

The four-person crew launched Tuesday and is in the midst of the highest orbit above Earth since NASA's Apollo program, which first put astronauts on the moon in 1969.

Crew Performed Mobility Tests in SpaceX-Designed Suits

The crew, wearing SpaceX-designed suits, exited their craft and performed a number of mobility tests to evaluate the performance of the suits. They are set to perform dozens of experiments to learn more about human health in space, along with tests of Starlink communications equipment.

On board the craft are two SpaceX Mission Specialists, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon; former Air Force pilot Kidd Poteet; and Shift4 Payments (FOUR) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jared Isaacman, who previously flew to space as commander of SpaceX's Inspiration4 in 2021.

SpaceX has said the orbit will be a trip up to five days, putting the astronauts' return likely sometime this weekend.

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