For the first time in history, civilian astronauts have successfully completed a spacewalk.
The crew of the private Polaris Dawn mission entered the deep black void between the stars in the early hours of Thursday, Sept. 12. Video of the milestone was streamed on X, the social media platform (formerly known as Twitter) owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
While only two of the four members of the crew physically left the SpaceX capsule — engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, and Jared Isaacman, the 41-year-old billionaire tech entrepreneur who is funding the flight — pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, 50, and medical officer Anna Menon, 38, were also suited up and exposed to the vacuum of space.
Polaris Program/AFP via Getty
That’s because the spaceship does not have an airlock, so the capsule had to be opened and depressurized for all. To avoid decompression sickness, the crew had their nitrogen removed from their blood in a process pre-takeoff.
The spacewalk was …