SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission: Who are the astronauts doing the spacewalk?

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission: Who are the astronauts doing the spacewalk?

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission is poised to make history this week with the first privately managed spacewalk, a risky endeavour previously undertaken only by government astronauts.

Two of the mission's four-member crew will venture out of their Crew Dragon capsule in Earth's orbit for a tethered spacewalk, marking the first major test of SpaceX's new spacesuits.

The capsule lacks an airlock and will completely depressurize for the spacewalk, requiring all four crew members to rely on their suits for survival.

The mission, scheduled for launch at 3:38 a.m. ET (0738 GMT) on Aug. 27 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is expected to last six days, with the spacewalk planned for the third day.

Here's a look at the profile of the astronauts:

Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of payments processing firm Shift4 Payments and a seasoned pilot, is commanding the Polaris Dawn mission and will be one of the two members - along with Sarah Gillis - performing the spacewalk outside the capsule.

He is bankrolling the mission under his Polaris program, although he declined to disclose the total expenditure, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.