00:00On Thursday, SpaceX is about to make history with the first ever private spacewalk.
00:06A team of four astronauts, including a billionaire and two SpaceX engineers,
00:11are currently orbiting Earth in the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
00:15This mission not only tests a new kind of spacesuit,
00:19but also stands as one of the riskiest spacewalks ever attempted by Elon Musk's company.
00:25The Polaris Dawn mission launched early Tuesday from Florida,
00:29marking another bold step in pushing the limits of commercial spaceflight.
00:34The four astronauts are orbiting at an altitude of 700 kilometers, or 435 miles, above Earth.
00:42During the spacewalk, the capsule will be completely depressurized,
00:47and the crew will rely solely on SpaceX's sleek new spacesuits for oxygen and life support.
00:53This marks a significant moment in the evolution of private space exploration.
00:59Leading the mission is Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4,
01:03who funded this journey after his successful Inspiration4 mission in 2021.
01:09Alongside Isaacman are Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel,
01:15and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
01:19The crew underwent 2.5 years of rigorous training,
01:23preparing them for the dangers and challenges of spacewalks.
01:27Although the exact cost of the mission remains undisclosed,
01:30it's estimated to run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
01:34Polaris Dawn is the furthest any human has traveled since the Apollo missions in 1972.
01:41On Wednesday, the Crew Dragon spacecraft orbited Earth at least six times in an elliptical path,
01:47reaching as far as 1,400 kilometers above the planet.
01:52In preparation for the spacewalk, or extravehicular activity, EVA,
01:57the capsule adjusted its orbit to a peak altitude of 700 kilometers while the cabin pressure was lowered.
02:04Traditionally, only government astronauts with years of training have performed spacewalks.
02:10Since the year 2000, there have been around 270 spacewalks conducted on the International Space Station,
02:17with an additional 16 performed by Chinese astronauts on the Tiangong Space Station.
02:23This mission is not just about breaking records.
02:27It will also conduct a series of scientific studies on how the human body reacts to deep space,
02:33contributing to decades of health research conducted on astronauts aboard the ISS.
02:39Additionally, this spacewalk happens at a time when there are a record 19 astronauts orbiting Earth.
02:46The Russian Soyuz MS-26 mission recently added two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut to the ISS,
02:54bringing the total number of people in space to 12.
02:58Meanwhile, three Chinese astronauts are stationed aboard the Tiangong Space Station.
03:04Since 2001, SpaceX's Crew Dragon has been the only U.S. vehicle capable of reliably carrying humans to space and back.
03:13It has completed over a dozen crewed missions, primarily for NASA.
03:18In contrast, Boeing's Starliner, developed under the same program, has struggled to keep pace,
03:24with its test mission in June leaving its crew stranded aboard the ISS, awaiting a return ride with Crew Dragon.
03:32SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission represents a giant leap for commercial space travel,
03:38demonstrating not only the technical prowess of the private sector,
03:42but also its ability to push the boundaries of human exploration.
03:46Stay tuned for more updates as this historic mission unfolds.
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