A daredevil billionaire blasted off into orbit on Tuesday aiming to perform the first private spacewalk that would also set a post-Apollo altitude record.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, 41, tapped SpaceX to help with his latest chartered flight off planet, with the billionaire set to test a brand new spacesuit as he becomes the first private citizen to conduct a spacewalk.
Isaacman is set to go further beyond the International Space Station, which orbits at an altitude of 870 miles, surpassing the Earth-lapping record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966.
Only the 24 Apollo mission astronauts who flew to the moon have ventured farther into space.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sept. 10, 2024. AFP via Getty ImagesThe ship will spend 10 hours at the height, filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris before reducing orbit to about 435 miles.
The spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday, midway through Isaacman’s five-day flight that began Tuesday morning when Polaris Dawn took off from Florida.
Spacewalks, often considered one the riskiest stunts while in orbit, have remained in the realm of professional astronauts since 1965.
Isaacman, the CEO and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4, is being accompanied on his trip by a pair of SpaceX engineers Sarah Gills and Anna Menon, as well as former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet.
All four are equipped with SpaceX’s latest spacewalking suits given that the entire Dragon capsule would be depressurized during the two-hour spacewalk, exposing the whole crew to the ruthless vacuum of space.
Unlike his previous chartered flight, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman shared the cost with SpaceX this time, including developing and testing brand new spacesuits to see how they’ll hold up in the harsh vacuum. @SpaceX/X
All four wore SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule would be depressurized for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment. @SpaceX/XBoth Isaccman and Gills are scheduled to take turns briefly popping out of the hatch to test the spacesuits.
“I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our solar system,” Isaccman said before liftoff.
Unlike NASA’s spacewalk missions, the billionaire will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule during the walkabout or be attached to a support structure to ensure his safety.
Only NASA suits are currently equipped with jetbacks for emergency use during a spacewalk.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sept. 10, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
It’s the first of three trips that Isaacman bought from Elon Musk two and a half years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. APPoteet and Menon will be monitoring the spacewalk from the inside.
Isaacman, who teamed up with SpaceX to pay for the spacesuit development and associated cost, refuses to say how much he has invested in the trip.
This is the first of three trips Isaacman purchased from Elon Musk in 2022 after returning from his first venture into space in 2021.
His first self-funded, three-day trip to space was estimated by Florida Today to have cost as much as $200 million.
During that trip, Isaacman set a record by being the first space tourist to circle the Earth without having a professional astronaut aboard.
