(DCWatchdog.com) – BREAKING NEWS: After venturing farther from Earth than anyone since the Apollo moon missions, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman made history this week as the first civilian to embark on a spacewalk.
41-year-old Isaacman stepped out of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, tied to the spacecraft, and faced the infinite dark void of space just before morning start. Footage captured the moment as he floated in the vast emptiness.
“Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman remarked as he looked down on the glowing planet below.
After about 15 minutes, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, who repeated the process. Two more crew members, engineer Anna Menon, and former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, were next in line.
Though the spacewalk itself was set to last about 30 minutes, the preparation and conclusion took around two hours. Before emerging, the billionaire and his team waited inside the depressurized capsule.
Although the start of the spacewalk had been delayed by a few hours, SpaceX offered no immediate explanation but reassuringly stated via X that “all systems are looking good.”
Furthermore, Isaacman and his crew began prepping for the walk shortly after launching into orbit for a five-day mission. They were safeguarded by the new SpaceX suits, which Isaacman designed.
Officials had stated that the mogul entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of Shift4, a credit card processing company, would remain tethered during the spacewalk, keeping at least one hand or foot on the craft for safety.
A longer, untethered spacewalk was not an option because only NASA suits are equipped with jetpacks to guide an astronaut back to safety.
Due to the Crew Dragon’s lack of a pressurized airlock, all crew members wore the new spacesuits to protect against the vacuum of space.
This walk occurred after the crew reached nearly 870 miles above Earth, surpassing the International Space Station and breaking the record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966.
Though Isaacman has not disclosed the cost of these SpaceX missions, he was among the first space tourists in 2021, setting a record as the first to circle Earth without a professional astronaut on board.
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