American businessman Elon Musk's space-tech company SpaceX launched its Polaris Dawn mission on September 10. The Polaris Dawn mission carried 4 astronauts into space in a Dragon Crew capsule. The astronauts were seen doing a spacewalk about 700 kilometers above the earth. Mission commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis exited the spacecraft and did a spacewalk, while the other two astronauts, Poteet and Menon, remained in the cabin.
Jared Isaacman is a tech entrepreneur
Jared Isaacman is a tech entrepreneur. The businessman teamed up with SpaceX to launch a daring mission hundreds of miles above Earth. Isaacman, the CEO and founder of the Shift4 credit card processing company, declined to disclose how much he has invested in the space trip.
The speed of the spacecraft was 25000 km/h
When the two astronauts did the spacewalk, the speed of their spacecraft was about 25,000 km/h. It is worth noting that this is the world's first private spacewalk. Both the astronauts were seen walking in space for about 10 minutes, after which the hatch of the spacecraft was closed. Some important things were taken care of before the spacewalk.
- Crew begins “breathe before you take a breath” procedure ahead of spacewalk
- In this process the cabin is filled with pure oxygen
- Any traces of nitrogen were removed from the cabin
- If nitrogen gets into an astronaut's bloodstream while in space, it can hinder blood flow. That's why this was done.
There is a huge difference between walking on land and walking in space
During this mission, 36 research studies and experiments related to human health are also being conducted. Apart from this, laser-based communication of Starlink will be tested in space. These astronauts have walked in space just like we walk on the ground. But there is a lot of difference between walking on the ground and walking in space. Space walk is a casual name. Actually, it is also called EVA or Extra Vehicle Activity. Since 1998, there have been 270 space walks in the International Space Station.