Forget Paris, Bali, or Fiji—your next adventure is in the stars! Or at least, that is what space travel is transforming into as civilians take big steps in space, redefining what it means to explore the final frontier.
On September 12th, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn made history when the first group of civilian astronauts performed a spacewalk about 450 miles above Earth. Polaris Dawn set out on a privately funded 5-day mission to the Earth’s orbit with a four-person crew. On board was billionaire and CEO of Shift4 Payments, Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn financier and former US Air Force Pilot Scott Poteet, and two SpaceX engineers, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. To embark on this historic spacewalk, the crew depressurized the spacecraft and unlocked the capsule’s hatch, dangerously exposing the spacecraft to the vacuum of space. Isaacman exited the spacecraft first, climbing up the space ladder into space for about 10 minutes. He captured stunning views of Earth and marveled, “Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here — looks like a perfect world.” Gillis also exited the spacecraft for about 10 minutes, and her main goal was to test the mobility of her spacesuit.
Prior spacesuits were bulky and expensive, with its life support built in. The new spacewalk suit that Gillis tested was shaped and fitted to her body, allowing her to float and complete tasks more effectively. Rather than being built into the suit, the life support was connected from a long hose attached to the spacecraft, which decreased the weight of the suit. Isaacman’s goal is for there to one day be settlements of people living in space, so he sees a critical need to produce inexpensive suits on a large scale that allow more mobility for users.
In addition to testing spacesuits, the Polaris Dawn crew performed 36 experiments and set numerous records. The team set a record for the farthest travel into space since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago. In addition, the crew made it to 870 miles above Earth, beating NASA’s Gemini 11 mission of 853 miles in 1966. Gillis and Menon also set another major record for making history as the first women to fly that far from Earth.
The mission was a complete success, with the four civilian astronauts landing back safely on Earth on September 17th. They splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, opening the door to more commercial missions in the future.
With this record-breaking mission, the sky is no longer the limit—it is truly just the beginning! The future of space travel is bright, and the final frontier belongs to us all.
