Photo: Polaris Program
The Polaris Dawn mission crew completed the first-ever spacewalk for SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on Thursday at 4:58 pm IST — 732.2km above Earth.
After launching into orbit on Tuesday, the Polaris Dawn crew embarked on a rigorous pre-breathe procedure over two days to prevent decompression sickness. This involved gradually reducing Dragon’s cabin pressure while increasing oxygen levels, acclimating the astronauts to the conditions inside their extravehicular activity (EVA) suits.
On Thursday, the crew intensified their preparations by suiting up, initiating Dragon seat rotation, and conducting final checks on their heads-up displays and helmet cameras.
The spacewalk officially commenced with suit pressurisation, nitrogen purging, and the flow of pure oxygen into the astronauts’ suits. A secondary oxygen flow provided essential cooling throughout the mission.
“Then on Thursday, the crew donned their suits and initiated Dragon seat rotation, suit tare, and the heads-up display and helmet camera checkouts. The 106-minute spacewalk officially began at 6:12 a.m. ET when suit pressurisation started, the nitrogen purge was initiated, and pure oxygen (O2) was flowing into the suits,” Polaris explained in a tweet.
With the suits cleared for leaks, the crew received the go-ahead to depressurise Dragon’s cabin to near-vacuum levels, with cabin pressure dropping from eight psi to below one psi.
“Mission Commander Jared Isaacman opened the hatch and for the first time, four astronauts were simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space. Jared and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis separately exited the spacecraft and individually performed a series of suit mobility demonstrations to test the performance of the spacesuit in the vacuum environment of space,” continued Polaris.
One of the mission’s highlights is the new spacesuits created by SpaceX. Unlike the previous suits designed by NASA, SpaceX suits are less bulky and do not have the Primary Life Support System, making them lighter.
SpaceX found a way to provide life support to astronauts via a 12-foot umbilical cord that’s connected to the spacecraft, writes TechCrunch. For further support, the astronauts used a special mobility tool, Skywalker, designed by SpaceX.
The mission set a precedent for future commercial space exploration and even the establishment of a base on the Moon or Mars.
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