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Jewish tech billionaire back to Earth after first private spacewalk

SpaceX’s capsule splashes down in Gulf of Mexico carrying entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the 264th person to walk in space

This image made from a SpaceX video shows the start of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image made from a SpaceX video shows the start of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

A Jewish billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.

SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.

They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 740 kilometers (460 miles) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 1,408 kilometers (875 miles) following Tuesday’s liftoff.

Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.

“We are mission complete,” Isaacman radioed as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team.

During Thursday’s commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes.

Astronauts from left, mission specialist Anna Menon, pilot Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis give the thumbs up at the Kennedy Space Center for an upcoming private human spaceflight mission at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.

The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX’s Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.

SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.

This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won’t divulge how much he spent.

In 2021, when Isaacman became the first space tourist from US soil on the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the Jewish entrepreneur told CNN that he did not plan to observe Yom Kippur from space, which coincided with his launch.

Isaacman added that he’s “actually not a religious person,” though he acknowledged that he contributes to a synagogue in New Jersey.

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