Polaris Dawn Mission Day 3 Updates: Spacewalk

SpaceX and Polaris Dawn created history on mission day 3 when the human crew stepped out of the Dragon spacecraft for a spacewalk. It was the first ever extravehicular activity (EVA) 732.2km above Earth. The spacewalk began at 6:12 a.m. ET, remained in action for more than one hour and wrapped up at 7:58 a.m. ET on September 12.

There’s a lot of activity that happened on Day 3 and here you can check all in a summary from the Polaris Dawn mission.

After arriving in Space on September 10, the crew began a two-day pre-breathe process, designed to prevent decompression sickness while preparing the crew for the environment inside the EVA suits by gradually lowering Dragon’s cabin pressure and increasing the oxygen concentration.

On Thursday, the crew put on their suits and started Dragon seat rotation, suit tare, heads-up display, and helmet camera check.

The spacewalk officially kicked off with suit pressurization, nitrogen purge, and pure oxygen (O2) flow. The oxygen flow ensured that all suits remained cool from the inside during the spacewalk.

After completing the suit leak check, the crew and ground teams gave the go for Dragon to initiate venting, which took the cabin’s pressure down from 8 psi to below 1 psi – to match the vacuum of space.

At the same time, the Dragon repositioned its trunk towards the sun prior to the hatch opening. Mission Commander Jared Isaacman opened the hatch and for the first time, four astronauts were simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space. Along with Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, Isaacman performed numerous suit mobility tests.

Meanwhile, Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet and Mission Specialist Anna Menon remained seated, managing suit umbilicals and monitoring vital support systems and telemetry on Dragon’s displays.

After returning inside, the Dragon hatch was closed and started the re-pressurization process. The pod was re-pressurized to 14 psi, and cabin oxygen and pressure levels were confirmed. This process marks the end of suit testing alongside the first commercial spacewalk and the first EVA from a Dragon spacecraft.

After the spacewalk, the crew will rest and conduct a new Starlink high-speed internet test from space. That wraps up the Day 3 of the Polaris Dawn mission.

(source)