Polaris Dawn mission is one giant leap for private space exploration

The success of the all-civilian spacewalk on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission shows that private space flight is starting to catch up with government space agencies

By Leah Crane

13 September 2024

An artist’s rendering of the spacewalk on the Polaris Dawn mission

SpaceX

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission is a leap forward for private space flight – even though it demonstrates the same capabilities that government space agencies have had for decades. The mission included the first ever spacewalk, also called an extravehicular activity or EVA, performed by private individuals instead of government-employed astronauts.

This spacewalk was particularly risky. Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon craft does not have an airlock, so performing the EVA meant evacuating the entire capsule of air before two of the crew members, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, ventured out into the vacuum of space. Not only were there no government-trained astronauts on the crew, it was also the first time SpaceX’s new space suits and the spacecraft itself had been tested in this way.

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On its own, this may seem a bit unimpressive. After all, astronauts perform hours-long EVAs on the ISS regularly and have been doing so for decades. Even opening an entire crew capsule to space has been done before, and it was relatively common during NASA’s Gemini programme in the 1960s.

So it could be said that SpaceX is rehashing old achievements – but that isn’t the whole story. “When you are doing something for the first time, it doesn’t matter that other people have already done it. It’s still the first time for you,” says Laura Forczyk, an independent consultant in the space industry. “SpaceX has never done this before, so they have to start from scratch and take baby steps because that’s the safe thing to do.”