13 September 2024 09:35 am Views - 1200
A billionaire and an engineer have become the first non-professional crew to perform one of the riskiest manoeuvres in space - a spacewalk.
Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis stepped out of the SpaceX spacecraft around 15 minutes apart, starting at 11:52BST, wearing specially-designed suits.
"Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world," Mr Isaacman said as he exited.
It was commercially funded by Mr Isaacman. Before, only astronauts with government-funded space agencies had done a spacewalk.
Images broadcast live showed the two crew emerge from the white Dragon capsule to float 435 miles (700km) above the blue Earth below.
Mr Isaacman emerged first, wiggling his limbs, hands and feet to test his suit. He returned back inside the hatch, and Ms Gillis, who works for SpaceX, then climbed out.
Both crew narrated their spacewalk, describing how their suits performed outside of the craft.