The crew of the Polaris Dawn mission has completed the first-ever private spacewalk. SpaceX announced that the stay in space of two Americans – Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis – lasted 20 minutes and went successfully.
The Falcon 9 Space X rocket lifted off Tuesday from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the four astronauts into Earth orbit. The Crew Dragon capsule was depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space. The spacewalk occurred at an altitude of about 700 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
The main purpose of the spacewalk was to test the high-tech spacesuits, which SpaceX took two years to develop.
As the company reported, the goal of the Polaris Dawn mission is to accelerate the development of manned spaceflight. The four astronauts are expected to perform dozens of scientific experiments on the health and functioning of the human body during long-duration spaceflight. The mission will also test Starlink laser communications in space.
