SpaceX Tourists Will Make Attempt at Spacewalk During Flight
The New York Times
Jared Isaacman, who flew in the company’s capsule last year, is chartering a repeat voyage that will expose the space-suited crew to space.
Space tourists have flown to the International Space Station, and even orbited Earth in their own space capsule for three days. Now, a group of private astronauts wants to attempt a spacewalk, one of the most dangerous things people flying in space have ever done.
As soon as the end of this year, four private astronauts, including Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who chartered SpaceX’s first space tourist mission last year, could launch to space aboard the company’s Crew Dragon capsule. At some point during their five days circling Earth, at least one of the crew members will exit the spacecraft for what would be the first spacewalk conducted by a nongovernment astronaut.
Spacewalking “is the riskiest thing that we do as astronauts,” said Sandra Magnus, a retired NASA astronaut who operated the space station’s robotic arm in 2002 while other astronauts completed extravehicular activities, NASA’s term for spacewalks. Referring to the astronauts’ bulky protective spacesuits, she said, “You’re in a one-person spaceship, attached by a wire to the outside of your vehicle.”
