Astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission, operated by Space X, performed a spacewalk (EVA – Extra Vehicular Activity) at an altitude of 743 km. This was the first EVA outside of LEO (Low Earth orbit) in over half a century (since the Apollo missions), the first performed by non-professional astronauts, and the first on a private, non-governmental, mission. The spacesuit used was completely innovative, for example in terms of its reduced size and high mobility, and was designed from scratch by Space X. The crew consisted of Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon. Gillis and Isaacman were the two crew members to actually exit the spacecraft, for a total of approximately 20 minutes. Polaris Dawn is a private crewed spaceflight managed by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched on September 10, 2024, as the 14th crewed orbital flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, Isaacman and his crew are in an elliptical orbit that has brought them to within 1,400 km of Earth, entering fully into the first Van Allen Belt.
