Polaris Dawn astronauts Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis have successfully emerged from the confines of their Crew Dragon vehicle to conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk on Sept. 12. SpaceX and the Polaris crew began preparing for the event at 6:01 a.m. ET by checking to make sure all of their equipment was in order and donning the SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits that all four are required to wear because opening the Dragon’s hatch will expose them to outer space. Pure oxygen was pumped into the suits to check for leaks before all of the air was released from the vehicle and before Isaacman opened the hatch.
A few minutes before 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Isaacman stepped through the hatch and out of the vehicle, Dragon’s camera capturing his silhouette against our planet as a backdrop. He then performed a series of mobility exercises as planned — the goal of the spacewalk was to test SpaceX’s new EVA suits — before returning to the capsule. “At home, we all have a lot of work to do,” he said as he exited the vehicle. “But from here, it looks like a perfect world.”
After she returned to her seat, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis prepared for her turn. She had to deal with the bulging of the hatch seal, but was eventually able to climb out of the hatch and do a series of mobility exercises like Isaacman did. Once she was done, the team closed the hatch and began repressurizing Dragon to equalize the atmosphere inside before checking for leaks in the cabin. At 7:55 a.m., Dragon’s repressurization was complete, marking the end of today’s spacewalk.
