SpaceX's Private Astronauts Are About to Walk in Space

Earlier on Tuesday, SpaceX’s upgraded Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully launched, kicking off a five-day Polaris Dawn mission to conduct the first private astronaut spacewalk. The launch was originally scheduled for late August but was postponed due to bad weather conditions.

Not only has the launch itself been challenging, as has the upcoming spacewalk by a private crew, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, but the return journey to Earth is also expected to be risky. Because the spacewalk will deplete oxygen, the spacecraft will only be able to support life for five to six days in space.

During the space exploration tour, the Crew Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 rocket more than 12 minutes after liftoff. The capsule entered an elliptical orbit with a maximum altitude of about 1,200 km and a minimum altitude of 190 km. After several orbits, the Crew Dragon spacecraft gradually climbed to an altitude of 1,400 km above the Earth's surface, the furthest humans have been to in space since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

In addition to billionaire Isaacman, this private crew includes two SpaceX experts Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, and former US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott Poteet, who is acting as pilot. They are expected to spend 5 days in space and conduct 40 scientific experiments.

The official website of billionaire Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX will broadcast live the spacewalk of the aforementioned private astronauts, and readers can watch it here.

Ha Trang (according to CNN)