Flying Higher Than Anyone in Over Fifty Years, the First Civilians Have Walked in Space

The first spacewalk by a civilian was conducted on September 12 by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, an activity that has, until now, been the exclusive domain of professional astronauts, cosmonauts and taikonauts.

On September 10 the Crew Dragon capsule Resilience that carried Isaacman and his three crewmates into orbit was launched atop one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the furthest anyone has been from the Earth since Apollo 17 in 1972. The mission, Polaris Dawn, is a fully private endeavor operated by SpaceX on behalf of payment processing company Shift4 Payments, and has no involvement from government-funded agencies such as NASA, ESA or Roscosmos.

“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman remarked upon seeing the Earth below, at a reduced altitude of 737 kilometers (458 miles). The capsule’s initially high orbit was intended to briefly take the crew through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the effects of space radiation on human health.

Isaacman wore one of SpaceX’s new extra-vehicular activity suits during the 32-minute spacewalk, during which the Shift4 CEO tested the flexibility of the suit, maintaining a handhold on the craft at all times with a special walker-like apparatus attached to the hatch for support.

Fifteen minutes later he was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, who repeated the same test motions; at 30 years of age, Gillis is now the youngest person to have participated in an EVA. Although they wore similar suits, SpaceX engineer Anna Menon and former USAF Thunderbird pilot Scott Poteet remained inside the capsule to monitor Gillis and Isaacman’s spacewalk.

Although Isaacman’s EVA is a first for civiliankind, it is not his first foray into space: he was previously part of the all-civilian-crewed Inspiration4 mission that flew from 16 to 18 September, 2021, with the mission being used to raise $100 million to expand childhood cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Polaris Dawn is due to return to Earth on September 15.