Two private astronauts will attempt to make history today as they make the first ever civilian spacewalk, exiting a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft in a groundbreaking mission.
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission is one of the riskiest spacewalks ever attempted, harking back to the early space programme of the 1960s and 1970s because the Crew Dragon capsule lacks an airlock.
While two of the four crew will leave the craft, the remaining two will also have to don spacesuits despite staying inside as the interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space as the capsule is depressurised.
The astronauts are expected to start making checks and preparations for the spacewalk just before 11am UK time, before opening the hatch at around 11.30am and exiting the craft.
The wider mission will see the crew spend up to five days in orbit around Earth, with the spacewalk – or extravehicular activity (EVA) – on the third day, 12 September.
Every previous spacewalk has been performed by government-trained astronauts, while the crew of Polaris Dawn are all civilians. Mission commander for the flight is Jared Isaacman, the head of and billionaire co-funder of SpaceX’s Polaris programme. The rest of the crew consists of retired US Air Force test pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
Gillis and Isaacman are the two due to exit the vehicle and they are expected to make a relatively short spacewalk lasting no more than half an hour.
newsfromrss.com
