Polaris Dawn crew members from left to right: Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis. Photo: SpaceX

Two other astronauts on board who didn’t venture far are former US Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, 51, and Anna Menon, 39, a lead space operation engineer at SpaceX.

Spacewalks are considered among the most dangerous aspects of spaceflight due to the exposure to the vacuum of space. 

SpaceX said on X owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that first spacewalk from the Crew Dragon spacecraft began at 10:12 GMT on September 12 (5:12 PM Hanoi time). The improved spacecraft with four private astronauts was launched into orbit using a Falcon 9 rocket in the early morning of September 10, kicking off the five-day Polaris Dawn mission.

The mission marked a major milestone for the growing private commercial space industry, making the space economy gradually move away from dependence on the government. In addition to the spacewalk, the capsule flew higher than any human spaceflight mission since the last of the Apollo moon missions, in 1972.

Martin Barstow, a professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester, said: “This is a real milestone in space exploration, with a commercial company demonstrating its ability to conduct human space operations beyond low Earth orbit and completely independently of a government space agency.”

After the Polaris Dawn mission, Mr. Isaacman is planning two more space flights. The next will be the first crewed flight of SpaceX's Starship, a prototype next-generation rocket.

The Sunday Times cited statistics in 2023 from US non-profit organization Space Foundation showing that the global space industry grew 8% in 2022, reaching 546 billion USD and is expected to reach nearly 800 billion USD in revenue in the next five years. Commercial revenues continued to account for 78% of the total economy number.