Denise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.
A SpaceX capsule carrying four private citizens blasted off early Tuesday on a five-day mission that is set to include the first spacewalk carried out by an all-civilian crew. The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, lifted off at 5:24 a.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flight is designed to carry the four crew members to the highest orbital altitude that humans have reached since the final Apollo moon mission in 1972: 870 miles above Earth’s surface.
The spacewalk is scheduled for the mission’s third day. Isaacman and Gillis are expected to exit the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a tether, but because the spacecraft does not have a pressurized airlock, the entire capsule will be depressurized and exposed to vacuum conditions. As such, all four astronauts will wear and test newly designed spacesuits during the spacewalk. If successful, the outing will make history.
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