‘It Sure Looks Like a Perfect World’: Billionaire Isaacman Marvels at Planet Earth as He Leaves SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in First Commercial Spacewalk During Polaris Dawn Mission (VIDEO)

 

One may venture the opinion that it was money well spent, as billionaire Jared Isaacman floated in space just outside the Crew Dragon capsule.

The businessman – the commander and funder of the Polaris Dawn mission – took turns with crew member Sarah Gillis on early Thursday in what became the first privately financed spacewalk in the history of space exploration.

CBS News reported:

“As he took in his first unobstructed look at the Earth 458 miles below, Isaacman marveled at the serene, boundary-free view, saying ‘back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world’.”

Crew members Anna Menon and Scott Poteet were monitoring safety tethers and umbilicals inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

The capsule was airless, with its hatch open, as Isaacman ventured into open space around 6:51 a.m. EDT.

“While his feet were just outside the hatch, he did not ‘free float’ away from the Crew Dragon. The Space-X designed pressure suits were not equipped with their own oxygen supply or other life support equipment and relied instead on the 12-foot-long umbilicals to deliver air, power and communications.

As Isaacman and then Gillis floated one at a time just outside the hatch, they tested the comfort and mobility of their pressurized extra-vehicular activity, or EVA, suits, moving their arms, hands and legs through a series of positions to find out how much effort is required to carry out basic tasks.”

Cameras were mounted inside and outside the Crew Dragon, as well as attached to their helmets, providing wide-angle views of space and the Earth below.

“‘It’s gorgeous,’ Isaacman said, taking a moment to take in the view after carrying out his portion of the mobility tests.”

“The goal of the one-hour 46-minute spacewalk was to help company engineers perfect low-cost, easy-to-manufacture spacesuits for use by future commercial astronauts flying to the moon or Mars aboard SpaceX Super Heavy-Starship rockets.”

Isaacman is following the footsteps of NASA astronaut Ed White, who carried out the first U.S. spacewalk on June 3, 1965, floating out of the Gemini 4 capsule at the end of a long tether.

“Since that historic day, NASA astronauts, Russian cosmonauts, Chinese taikonauts and astronauts from space station partner nations have carried out more than 470 government-sponsored spacewalks.”