SpaceX Polaris Dawn live updates: Billionaire attempts first private spacewalk

SpaceX has just given the go-ahead for the spacewalk to begin.

All crew members give final confirmation as their suits fill with oxygen and the capsule is depressurised.

We’re getting the first live views from inside the Crew Dragon capsule as they complete the final checks before cabin depressurisation. That’s mission commander (and funder) Jared Isaacman on the right.

The Polaris Dawn crew are all suited up and will soon perform the EVA suit leak checks before the spacewalk begins.

It’s going to be a little later than scheduled, but still going ahead.

There are three ways that Crew Dragon can be configured for various activities. The one they’ll be using today is the ‘Skywalker’ mode, which is a new configuration that will see handles added to the hatch to assist the astronauts as they leave the spacecraft.

The craft has entered this mode as the crew make their final preparations for the spacewalk, which is due to take place in about 15 minutes.

The live stream of the spacewalk, which is due to get underway at 5:58am ET (10:58am BST), is finally available. You can watch it here:

While we wait for the live stream of the Polaris Dawn spacewalk, you can watch SpaceX’s latest launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

It is the 13th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this Bluebird I-5 mission, and the 91st orbital launch for SpaceX this year – just five shy of the record the company set in 2023.

A billionaire going on a privately-funded spacewalk is proving as polarising as it is pioneering.

The Polaris Dawn mission, conducted by SpaceX but paid for by US entrepreneur and mission commander Jared Isaacman, is the latest in a series of commercial ventures that are opening up space to anyone rich enough to pay for it. Previous private space flights have been praised by some for heralding a new era of space access, while being ridiculed by others as the latest folly of self-indulgent billionaires.

But this mission is a giant leap from the vainglorious joyrides to the edge of space undertaken by Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, who blew their billions on unconvincing attempts to call themselves astronauts. (Despite Blue Origin repeatedly referring to Bezos as an “international astronaut” during his 10-minute flight to the Kármán line in 2021, the trip did not meet the astronaut criteria set out by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which states that crew members must take part in activities that are “essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety”.)

By contrast, Polaris Dawn will travel more than 10-times further than either Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic have ventured and will last for days, not minutes. More than just a nice view for the crew, SpaceX says the mission will provide “valuable insight to future missions on the road to making life multiplanetary”, alluding to Elon Musk’s ambition to colonise Mars.

Despite being the boss of SpaceX, Musk has never actually travelled to space, leaving it instead to Nasa astronauts and the occasional civilian. But the world’s richest person has said that he hopes to die on Mars – just not on impact

You can read more about why the Polaris Dawn mission might actually matter here:

Only two of the Polaris Dawn crew – mission commander Jared Isaacman and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis – will actually take part in the spacewalk.

The other two – mission pilot Kidd Poteet and medical officer Anna Menon – will remain in the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which for this mission has been named Resilience.

Despite not actually leaving the craft, both Poteet and Menon will need to be fully suited up. This is because the Dragon capsule does not have an airlock, meaning the entire spacecraft will need to be depressurised.

It means that all four astronauts will be taking part in the primary objective of this spacewalk, which is to test SpaceX’s new extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits. These have been designed to take humans further than they’ve ever been before, with the hope of using them to take astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The design is based on SpaceX’s tried and tested intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit, but comes with several upgrades to make it suitable for use in outer space. These include new joints to improve mobility and a visor with a heads-up display.

SpaceX principal spacesuit engineer Erik Kraus describes it as “a suit of armour made of fabric”.

Here’s a close-up of how they look:

We’re less than three hours away from the Polaris Dawn spacewalk, with a live stream expected at 4:50am ET (9:50am BST).

You can watch it on SpaceX’s website here, as well as the firm’s official X page here. We’ll also have the live stream right here as soon as it’s available.