SpaceX makes history with first spacewalks by private citizens

Washington: A pioneering private crew made history Thursday by becoming the first civilians to perform spacewalks, as NASA hailed a giant leap forwar...

Washington: A pioneering private crew made history Thursday by becoming the first civilians to perform spacewalks, as NASA hailed "a giant leap forward" for the commercial space industry.

The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, led by fintech billionaire Jared Isaacman, launched early Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, journeying deeper into the cosmos than any humans in half a century, since the Apollo program.

With the four-member crew's Dragon spacecraft adjusted to an orbit with a high of 434 miles (700 kilometers), pure oxygen began flowing into their suits Thursday morning, marking the official start of their extravehicular activity (EVA) at 1012 GMT.

A short time later, Isaacman swung open the hatch and climbed through, gripping the hand and footholds of a structure known as "Skywalker," as a breathtaking view of Earth unfolded below him.

"It's gorgeous," he told mission control in Hawthorne, California, where teams cheered on important checkpoints.