The first private spacewalk in history will take place early Thursday morning (September 12), and you can watch the historic event live.
The pioneering extravehicular activity (EVA) will be performed by Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, two members of the four-person Polaris Dawn mission, which launched into Earth orbit early Tuesday morning (September 10) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 2:23 a.m. ET (6:23 a.m. GMT). According to SpaceX:. You can watch it live on Space.com. Directly through the companyThe broadcast begins at approximately 1:20 a.m. EDT (5:20 a.m. GMT).
SpaceX and Polaris Dawn representatives said the spacewalk will last about two hours from start to finish, which is the time it takes for the mission’s Crew Dragon capsule to be initially vented and repressurized.
relevant: How SpaceX’s Historic Polaris Dawn Private Spacewalk Will Go
Crew Dragon doesn’t have an airlock, so its entire interior is exposed to the vacuum of space during EVA. That means all four crew members—Isaacman, Gillis, Scott “Kid” Poteet, and Anna Menon—will be wearing new SpaceX EVA suits.
But only Isaacman and Gillis will be out of the capsule. Isaacman said at a pre-launch press conference on Aug. 26 that they will exit sequentially, not simultaneously, and that each will stay out for 15 to 20 minutes. And both plan to maintain contact with Crew Dragon (on the newly installed “Skywalker” railing) at all times during the EVA.
“We’re not just going to float around,” Isaacman said.
The primary goal of the spacewalk is to test the new SpaceX spacesuits the company has developed, which will be used on a variety of missions to Earth orbit and beyond.
“We know there could be 10 iterations and many evolutions of the suit, but we also know that one day someone might wear this version. [it] “It could be walking on Mars,” Isaacman said Aug. 26. “And it’s a great honor again to have the opportunity to test that on this flight.”
