Billionaire Jared Isaacman COMPLETES historic SpaceX Polaris Dawn private spacewalk, gives emotional first words: ‘From here, Earth looks like a perfect world’

SpaceX’s live footage shows crew members safely back in the Dragon capsule and sitting behind their screens.

Everyone at the company’s headquarters will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief.

The spacewalks, during which mission commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis left the aircraft without exiting it and performed a series of mobility tests, have now concluded.

During this mission, they will be the first two people to conduct a privately funded spacewalk.

Everyone is back inside and the hatch is closed, once again separating the crew of the Polaris Dawn from space.

The crew now waits patiently as the atmosphere in the vessel clears.

This process is expected to take up to 50 minutes.

According to SpaceX, the mission is progressing well.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman’s first words as he stepped out of the spaceship have been revealed.

“We all have a lot of work to do back home, but from here, Earth looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said after stepping out of the spacecraft. The planet shone in the penumbra below him.

Isaacman, 41, was the first to get off at about 6:52 a.m. ET (10:52 GMT).

When he returned a few minutes later, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis (30) was set to take her turn in space. All the maneuvers were streamed live on the company’s website.

Sarah Gillis was told to return to the capsule because she only had 5.9 minutes of oxygen left.

And the crew remained calm.

Sarah Gillis has left the capsule and is conducting mobility tests.

She has about a minute left of her spacewalk before she returns.

Now it’s Sarah Gillis’ turn to leave the capsule and perform mobility tests.

We are now seeing the first images of the very first commercial spacewalk.

Mr. Isaacman has stepped out of the capsule and is now in space.

Jared Isaacman has opened the hatch, allowing the crew to exit the capsule.

Shouts of joy could be heard in the broadcast from the control room.

The pre-ventilation process has now been completed and the crew has started ventilating the cabin.

According to Space X, the pressure in the cabin is starting to decrease.

Astronauts must complete the pre-breathing phase before they can leave the capsule.

The process takes about 19 minutes and involves astronauts inhaling oxygen to rid the body of nitrogen.

Divers use a similar procedure.

The astronauts are still in the ‘pre-breathe’ phase, waiting for permission to open the hatch.

The pressurization of the spacesuits has begun. This process will take approximately three and a half minutes.

This means the spacewalk has officially begun!

The astronauts have been given the green light to complete the mission.

Audio from Space X’s live broadcast revealed that initial safety checks had been performed on the spacesuits.

The final checks on the safety equipment are currently taking place.

The faces of Jared Isaacman and Scott Poteet were seen for the first time in the capsule today.

Final checks are currently being carried out and the mission is expected to begin within minutes.

The first live images from the Dragon capsule were also shown during the SpaceX broadcast.

The astronauts have already put on their spacesuits and have started ‘pre-breathing’.

A SpaceX presenter on the live broadcast said: “They will undergo a process called pre-breathing, where the atmospheric pressure inside Dragon is slowly reduced and the oxygen is increased, to prepare their bodies for the [spacewalk] ‘packing environment.’

He added that they started putting on their spacesuits “some time ago.”

Space safety experts warn that the crew faces potentially deadly risks from radiation exposure and rapid pressure changes that could cause life-threatening illnesses.

41-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman is best known as the founder and CEO of American payment processing company Shift4.

Isaacman founded the company in his parents’ basement in 1999, when he was just 16 years old.

After Isaacman dropped out of high school to work as a cybersecurity consultant, he used a $10,000 loan from his grandfather to convince a bank to certify him as a credit card terminal salesperson.

The industry has grown dramatically and now processes transactions for a third of U.S. restaurants and hotels, processing more than $200 billion in payments annually.

Previously, only government-supported space agencies sent astronauts on spacewalks, due to the extremely high risks involved.

Floating outside the protective walls of a spaceship is considered one of the most dangerous tasks an astronaut can undertake.

In this case, that risk is only increased because none of the crew members, with the exception of Isaacman, have ever been to space before.

In addition, the Dragon spacecraft has no airlock and the entire craft must be depressurized at once.

This will expose all four crew members to the harsh conditions of low Earth orbit and break the current record for the most people in the vacuum of space.

The Polaris Dawn mission launched at 5:23 a.m. Eastern Time on Sept. 10 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after days of delays due to weather conditions and a helium leak.

Yesterday, the SpaceX Dragon Crew spacecraft carried its crew to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers above the Earth, the highest altitude a human has ever reached since NASA’s Apollo missions.

The crew has already flown through Earth’s Van Allen Belt, an area of ​​extremely high radiation.

The most dangerous moment of the mission comes today, when the crew begins its first private spacewalk.

10.58am UK time: The mission begins

11.28 am: Hatch is unlocked and opened

11.31 am: Mission Commander Jared Isaacman will depart and begin testing the suit

11.44 am: Isaacman returns to his seat

11.49 am: Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis Departs

11.57 am: Gillis returns to her chair

11.58 am: Hatch is closed and pressure recovery begins

12.48 pm: Reprint Finishes

On board are billionaire Jared Isaacman, former Air Force commander Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.

Except for Isaacman, none of the crew members taking part in this dangerous mission have any experience in space.

The first-ever privately funded spacewalk is expected to begin just before 11:00 a.m. (5:58 a.m. ET) UK time.

The start was originally scheduled for 7am, but this was postponed without any reason given.