A Billionaire in Orbit and His Crew Prepare to Walk in Space
The New York Times
The astronauts of the Polaris Dawn mission, after traveling through heavy radiation and high orbits, are getting ready to open the hatch of their SpaceX vehicle.
Early Thursday morning, four private astronauts circling far above Earth will try something daring — let all the air out of their spacecraft.
That will be a prelude for two of the astronauts, who will then venture outside for the first commercial spacewalk ever, an event that is to be the highlight of the Polaris Dawn mission led by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur.
The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 5:58 a.m. Eastern time, a delay from an earlier announced start time of 2:23 a.m. SpaceX plans to broadcast live coverage of the event starting at 4:50 a.m.
If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday at the same time.
Because there is no airlock in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft used for the flight, the only way to perform a spacewalk is to let all the air out of the spacecraft, and then open one of the hatches. That requires all four crew members to wear spacesuits.
NASA and Soviet astronauts conducted spacewalks in a similar manner in the 1960s.
