'Earth Sure Looks Like a Perfect World'

"Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world," billionaire Jared Isaacman said Thursday morning after emerging from the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in the first-ever spacewalk by a private citizen. The tech entrepreneur was followed by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis. The capsule is currently in an orbit reaching as high as 430 miles above Earth, the New York Times reports. They each spent around 15 minutes outside the capsule. SpaceX broadcast the event live.

• A big first. Before Thursday, some 263 people from a dozen countries had conducted spacewalks, but all of them were professional astronauts, the AP reports. The Polaris Dawn mission, which launched on Tuesday, has taken people further into space than anybody else this century.

• No airlock. The capsule doesn't have an airlock, so the crew released all the air from the capsule and the two crew members who remained inside, pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, were also exposed to the vacuum of space, Space.com reports. After Isaacman and Gillis completed their spacewalks, the process of repressurizing the capsule with oxygen and nitrogen began, reports the Times.
• Spacesuit tests. All four crew members wore SpaceX's new EVA suits. SpaceX said Isaacman conducted suit mobility tests while the capsule flew over Australia and Antarctica, the BBC reports.
• Not much walking. The AP reports that the spacewalk "involved more stretching than walking." The crew members had 12-foot tethers but they kept a hand or foot on the capsule at all times while testing the suits.
• 870 miles into space. The Isaacman-funded Polaris Dawn mission, which launched on Tuesday, has taken people further into space than anybody else this century, the Washington Post reports. It brought the crew to an altitude of 870 miles, higher than anybody has gone since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972, before moving lower for the spacewalk.

(More Polaris Dawn stories.)