by Editor’s note: Follow CNN’s live updates as SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew undertakes first commercial spacewalk.
A four-person civilian crew aboard SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission prepares to open the hatch of their capsule and make history as the first group of non-governmental astronauts to conduct a spacewalk.
SpaceX will host a live webcast of the event, also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA), beginning at 5:58 a.m. ET.
The entire SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle that powers and protects the crew will be 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, venturing farther into space than any human since the end of NASA’s Apollo program more than 50 years ago.
The crew members – including Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments and Polaris Dawn backer, his close friend and former U.S. Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis – have been preparing for this spacewalk since their departure on Tuesday at 5:23 a.m. Eastern Time.
The team slowly went through a process called a “pre-breathe,” a step designed to rid the blood of nitrogen to prevent the gas from forming bubbles during the experience of the vacuum of space – a potentially fatal condition.
What to expect
Although the crew had previously reached an altitude of over 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the spacewalk is expected to take place at an altitude of 190 to 700 kilometers (118 to 435 miles) above Earth.
In total, the Crew Dragon capsule is expected to spend about two hours in space after the crew opens a hatch on top of the vehicle.
But only Gillis and Isaacman will actually leave the spacecraft, for about 20 minutes in total. They will climb a walker – essentially a ladder that SpaceX has dubbed the “Skywalker” – to venture into the endless void.
“There’s a lot of time built in for venting (or depressurizing the spacecraft) and repressurizing,” Isaacman told CNN of the two-hour spacewalk window. “And probably the biggest fear we wanted to protect against is failure to repressurize the vehicle – because then you only have your oxygen reserves to get you home in about two hours if you need to.”
“So I don’t expect we’ll have much time for sightseeing,” Isaacman added.
Brand new suits
While Isaacman and Gillis are outside the capsule, they focus on demonstrating how their brand new EVA suits work in space.
EVA suits basically function like spaceships—they’re just shaped and designed to fit the human body. Unlike the iconic, puffy white spacesuits that government astronauts wear when they leave the International Space Station for a spacewalk, SpaceX’s EVA suits don’t have a primary life support system (PLSS), according to Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut who works as a SpaceX consultant.
A PLSS is essentially a backpack that allows ISS astronauts to float more freely through space and perform complex tasks like repairing and replacing hardware outside the space station. The Polaris Dawn crew, on the other hand, receives their life support via long tubes attached to their spacecraft.
Nevertheless, SpaceX’s EVA suits are an impressive feat of engineering. The company designed and developed the spacesuits in just two and a half years – specifically for this mission.
The goal was to develop spacesuits that could one day be produced on a large scale, rather than the expensive custom-made ones currently used by space agencies.
When Isaacman spoke about the vision of the EVA suits in an interview with CNN, he referred to the overarching goal: that one day entire settlements of people will live in space.
Isaacman said he discussed this vision with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and they agreed: “We need spacesuits. And you know, they shouldn’t cost hundreds of millions of dollars. At some point we’ll need tens of thousands of them.”
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