'It looks like a perfect world': Billionaire completes first-ever privately funded spacewalk
An American billionaire has bought himself a slot in history, ITV News' Science Correspondent Martin Stew, reports
A billionaire has completed the first ever privately funded spacewalk, hundreds of miles above Earth.
Tech entrepreneur Jason Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to finance the first spacewalk carried out commercially.
Isaacman and his crew waited until their capsule was depressurised, before opening the hatch. SpaceX's livestream showed him emerging from the spacecraft silhouetted against a view of Earth.
"Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world," said Isaacman.
Once he returned to the capsule, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis took his place - emerging as the spacecraft flew over New Zealand.
The commercial spacewalk was the main focus of the five-day flight, and the culmination of years of development from Elon Musk's company.
This mission, named Polaris Dawn, is part of three SpaceX missions aimed at testing new technologies that seek to see humans live and work on other planets.
All four of the crew on board wore SpaceX's new spacewalking suits, designed to protect them from the harsh space vacuum.
They launched on Tuesday from Florida, rocketing farther from Earth than anyone since NASA's moonwalkers. The orbit was lowered to 460 miles for the spacewalk.
Even at this lower height, the orbit eclipses both the space station and the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle flown by astronauts.
In reality, the spacewalk included more stretching than walking. Isaacman kept a hand or foot attached to the hatch at all times as he flexed his arms and legs to test the space suit.
Sarah Gillis bobbed up and down no higher than her knees outside the capsule. Both walks lasted 15 minutes.
The operation was meticulously planned, with all four crew members undergoing intensive training before the trip.
But it was still a risky procedure: trying out new spacesuits in a craft new to spacewalking added to the danger, as did the fact the entire capsule was exposed to the vacuum of space.
Launch and reentry are the most dangerous parts of the operation, with spacewalking following closely behind.
More and more wealthy passengers are spending huge sums on rides aboard private rockets to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Others have spent tens of millions to stay in space for days or even weeks.
Isaacman, who is the CEO and founder of the Shift4 credit card processing company, has declined to disclose how much he invested in the flight.
Up until Thursday, only 263 people had conducted a spacewalk, representing 12 countries. The Soviet Union's Alexei Leonov was the first in 1965, followed a few months later by NASA's Ed White.
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