WASHIGTON   -   A four-person crew of civilians on board SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission unlocked the hatch of their capsule and made history as the first group of non-government astronauts to conduct a spacewalk. The entire SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle propelling and protecting the crew was depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space — a dangerous and historic milestone in the Polaris Dawn crew’s five-day journey through Earth’s orbit. The mission has already set records, traveling farther into space than any human since NASA’s Apollo program concluded more than 50 years ago. The crewmates — which includes Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn’s financer; his close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis — had prepared for this spacewalk since taking flight at 5:23 a.m. ET Tuesday. The team slowly underwent what’s called a “pre-breathe” process, a step intended to purge their blood of nitrogen to prevent the gas from bubbling — a potentially lethal condition — as they experienced the vacuum of space. “The first spacewalk from Dragon has begun!” SpaceX wrote on social media platform X.  The milestone is the latest in a string of achievements by SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Initially dismissed by traditionalists, it has since grown into a powerhouse that has reshaped the space industry.  In 2020, it beat aerospace giant Boeing in delivering a safe crewed spaceship to provide rides to NASA crew to the International Space Station. Today, it launches more rockets than any competitor, and its Starlink satellite constellation provides internet service to dozens of countries.  The crew is currently in a “prebreathe” process to purge nitrogen from their blood, preventing decompression sickness caused by nitrogen bubbles. The cabin pressure will be gradually reduced to match that of space.  Then they will open the hatch and Isaacman and crewmate Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, will take turns peeking out from a structure attached to the hatch dubbed “Skywalker,” equipped with hand and footholds.

In reality, they will be stress-testing SpaceX’s next-generation suits, which boast heads-up displays, helmet cameras and enhanced joint mobility systems. However, they won’t float away on a tether like early spacefarers such as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov or NASA’s Ed White did in 1965.

Instead, they’ll cling to the spacecraft as it whizzes around the planet at roughly 17,500 mph. Mission pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon will monitor vital support systems during the activity, while Isaacman and Gillis are expected to each spend about 15 to 20 minutes partially outside the craft.

“The risk is greater than zero, that’s for sure, and it’s certainly higher than anything that has been accomplished on a commercial basis,” former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe told AFP.  “This is another watershed event in the march toward commercialization of space for transportation,” he added, comparing the crewmates to early