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First commercial spacewalk officially ends
The cabin has been repressurised and the crew are taking off their spacesuits.
They are doing some final cabin leak checks now.
Fun(ish) fact: Polaris Dawn’s spacewalk is happening at the same time a record 19 astronauts orbit Earth, after Russia’s Soyuz rocket ferried two cosmonauts and a US astronaut to the International Space Station.
This website constantly tracks how many humans are in space.
Many readers asking where the toilet in the capsule is.
There is a waste disposal system but I’m sorry to say there is only one big room.
The capsule is now being repressurised. If you are watching the video you can see the pressure level in the bottom left corner. That needs to rise to about 8 psi.
Capsule door closes after spacewalks
All crew are back inside.
That was momentarily worrying. The SpaceX ground operations just asked if the door handle had been “stowed in the ‘do not stow’” position.
Gillis confirms it has not.
Another reader has emailed:
A billionaire’s head popping out if a hatch for a few minutes doesn’t exactly qualify as a spacewalk now does it?
Technically, these are called EVAs (extravehicular activities) but widely known as spacewalks. Nobody ever really “walks” as they are in a microgravity situation.
Gillis is currently 550 km above the earth and moving at 26,000 kph.
Updated
Mission Specialist @Gillis_SarahE egressing Dragon for the first commercial spacewalk pic.twitter.com/ewRIdKLqJ8
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024
Sarah Gillis exits capsule for spacewalk
Gillis is now making her way out of the top of the capsule.
Isaacman reenters capsule, Gillis prepares to exit
Isaacman is now back inside. Next it’s Sarah Gillis’s turn. She is a a senior engineer at SpaceX who has spent years working on missions from the ground. Now she is about to enter space herself.
He is now doing a “hands free” demonstration.
(Reminder for those who are panicking: he is tethered)
Isaacman is now conducting movement tests on the slimmed-down SpaceX suit.
For comparison, here is the Nasa spacesuit:
And the SpaceX one:
Updated
Billionaire Jared Isaacman conducts first civilian spacewalk
The commander is out in space.
“This sure looks like a perfect world,” he says.
Updated
The video feed shows a helmet camera view through the open hatch. The crew are ready to move out.
SpaceX crew opens hatch for first commercial spacewalk
All four of the all-civilian crew are now fully exposed to the elements of space, with billionaire Jared Isaacman due to exit the space capsule imminently.
The ground crew has asked commander Jared Isaacman to open the hatch manually.
This is tense. He has his hands on the capsule door. Waiting to open.
It is now “unlatched” but not yet open.
The hatch is being opened…
The capsule is currently approaching Africa. It won’t be there long as it is orbiting (spinning around the globe at 27,000 kph).
You can track it here: https://www.spacex.com/follow-dragon
The emails from readers are now coming in to my inbox. The below is an example of a regular theme with SpaceX launches:
“Seated in the comfort of your home couch watching the first non-astronauts getting ready for a spacewalk 450 km above earth. On the flip side, we can manage this but can’t provide safe drinking water to half of humanity.”
My colleague points out that the elbows of the new SpaceX suit looks like a “tumble drier pipe”.
Space capsule depressurisation begins
This will take about 8 minutes as they empty the cabin of air.
There is no airlock in the capsule. In a few moments, it will be completely depressurised and the whole crew – including the two who will remain inside – will rely on spacesuits for oxygen.
Isaacman and Gillis will exit but be tethered via what is call an “umbilical”. These are 12 feet long and provide air and cooling, plus as a SpaceX commentator just said, to make sure “they are not gonna go floating off into space”.
Updated
If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at oliver.holmes@theguardian.com
We can now hear a hissing. This is normal as the spacesuits are being pressurised with so the crew can do an air leak check before opening the door.
SpaceX confirms mission is "Go for spacewalk"
The crew have just received confirmation they can proceed following some intial checks.
So why is this a big deal?
Many reasons but here are three big ones:
This would be a major milestone for efforts by private companies (such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Boeing and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin) to take on the role that has so far been the sole domain of government agencies. Only well-funded state-run agencies, such as Nasa and Russia’s Roscosmos, have so far managed to carry out spacewalks.
The crew are also testing slimmed-down spacesuits designed by SpaceX (which look very sci-fi).
Essentially, this mission is a proof of concept that will lead to easier and cheaper access to space.
During the spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew will wear the new SpaceX EVA suits → https://t.co/LRl5pPlAC9 pic.twitter.com/MVHzNwiWZU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 10, 2024
We have images from inside the capsule. The crew are in their suits and Isaacman is floating around.
If you’re watching the video feed, you’ll have heard that the crew is “initiating seat rotation”. (Non space nerd translation: they are moving the furniture so they can move around easily)
Welcome to the blog
Hundreds of kilometres above the earth, two people are preparing right now to exit a space capsule as part of the world’s first commercial spacewalk attempt.
Jared Isaacman, 41, a billionaire who chartered the Polaris Dawn mission, and Sarah Gillis, 30, a senior engineer at SpaceX are currently donning their custom-built spacesuits.
Down on the ground, I’m Oliver Holmes, and I will be taking you through each step of the process.
