SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform historic 1st private spacewalk in orbit (video)

[Admin]

Two Polaris Dawn astronauts completed the world's first all-private spacewalk in their new SpaceX extravehicular activity suits, on Day 3 of the groundbreaking mission.

SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform historic 1st private spacewalk in orbit (video) : Read more

 

[Mars Tafts]

So is it really a spacewalk if the astronaut just stands in the hatch? Just more a test of the suit. Reminds me of the Apollo 9 mission where the astronauts stood in the hatches of the command module and LEM.

 

[Redderek]

Where is the video link? I only saw photos and links to other stuff.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Maybe not a "giant leap", but certainly more than a "baby step".

I am interested in whether the seals on the hatch have resulted in any leakage since the hatch was reclosed. Those seals seemed to be a point of interest, if not concern, for both the crew and the engineers on the ground.

 

[controltestguy]

Ed White was a spacewalk. Alexei Leonov was a spacewalk. Standing in the open hatch moving your arms around is just testing the flexibility of the suit. PD not exactly in the Iron Man tradition. So why is the media calling it a spacewalk? Still, SpaceX is pushing the envelope, at least.

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[Been There]

Is it "pioneering" if we did it 50 years ago? I do understand that it is news worthy, but maybe dial back the superlatives when the same thing has already been done with 1960's technology. I do believe they were sending back health telemetry back then as well. And does "Billionaire" need to be in the title? Why does that matter? I am being a bit "crusty" here, but 1) I watched it all happen as a kid already and 2) just finished the Apollo 13 documentary reminding me what non-billionaires and NASA engineers can do.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Well, it takes $billions to do it, no matter whether it is tax dollars taken from us non-billionaires or money spent by extremely wealthy people who got wealthy making profits off of products and services they provided to all of us non-billionaires.

But, it does seem we get more progress per $billion from the billionaires than from the companies sponsored by tax $ .