Billionaire Makes History With the First Private Spacewalk on SpaceX Mission
The tech entrepreneur was joined in the breathtaking feat by one of Elon Musk’s employees.
SpaceX X
After the SpaceX capsule depressurized, its billionaire mission commander opened the hatch and climbed out into the vacuum of space hundreds of miles above the Earth early Thursday—the first private spacewalk in human history.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman became the first non-professional astronaut to venture outside a spacecraft while in orbit.
Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission.
Joe Skipper
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do,” he said as he looked down at our planet. “But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world.”
Isaacman was outside the craft for around 10 minutes, performing stretches and other bodily motions to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, then also went out and performed the same gestures once Isaacman was back inside.
SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew have completed the first commercial spacewalk!
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024
“SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” — Mission Commander @rookisaacman during Dragon egress and seeing our planet from ~738 km pic.twitter.com/lRczSv5i4k
Commander @rookisaacman has egressed Dragon and is going through the first of three suit mobility tests that will test overall hand body control, vertical movement with Skywalker, and foot restraint pic.twitter.com/XATJQhLuIZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
The 41-year-old Isaacman—who founded the company Shift4 Payments and is estimated by Forbes to be worth around $1.9 billion—is bankrolling the five-day Polaris Dawn mission in conjunction with Elon Musk’s space company. He previously funded and led the first commercial, exclusively civilian crew to orbit Earth in 2021.
His unfathomably expensive hobby was nevertheless hailed by Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, as an important moment in spacefaring.
Get the best of The Beast delivered right to your inbox
By clicking “SUBSCRIBE” you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and @NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy,” Nelson wrote in a post on X.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.