Billionaire Jared Isaacman returns to Earth after first commercial spacewalk

A tech billionaire who completed the first commercial spacewalk returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday.

Jared Isaacman splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida along with two SpaceX engineers and a US Air Force pilot.

It brought to an end the five-day Polaris Dawn mission which was part funded by Mr Isaacman, the founder of payments company Shift4.

They successfully completed the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740km) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope.

Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408km) following Tuesday’s liftoff.

Mr Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th.

Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.

“We are mission complete,” Mr Isaacman radioed as the SpaceX capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team.

During Thursday's commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open for about half an hour.

Mr Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Ms Gillis.

SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.

This was Mr Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more planned.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know…