Washington:

A pioneering private crew made history Thursday by performing the first commercial spacewalk, with NASA hailing it as “a giant leap forward” for the space industry.

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

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, 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.

“SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” he told mission control in Hawthorne, California, where teams erupted in applause.

It was yet another major milestone for SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

Since then, SpaceX has grown into a powerhouse that in 2020 beat aerospace giant Boeing in delivering a spaceship to provide rides for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant US space economy,” NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on X.

Suit tests

Prior to the hatch opening, the crew underwent a “prebreathe” procedure to remove nitrogen from their bloodstream, preventing decompression sickness. Cabin pressure was then gradually lowered to align with the vacuum of space.

Isaacman and crewmate Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, took turns outside the vehicle, spending a few minutes performing mobility tests on SpaceX’s next-generation suits that boast heads-up displays, helmet cameras and enhanced joint mobility systems — before returning inside.

Extravehicular activity officially ended after an hour and 46 minutes, following cabin re-pressurization.

While it marked a first for the commercial sector, the spacewalk fell short of the daring feats from the early space era.

Early spacewalkers, including the first, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965, floated tethered to their spacecraft, while a select few Space Shuttle astronauts used jetpacks to fly completely untethered.

Since Dragon doesn’t have an airlock, the entire crew were exposed to the vacuum of space. Mission pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped in throughout as they monitored vital support systems.

“The risk is greater than zero, that’s for sure, and it’s certainly higher than anything that has been accomplished on a commercial basis,” former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe told AFP.

First of three Polaris missions

The spacewalk followed an audacious first phase of the mission, during which the Dragon spacecraft reached a peak altitude of 870 miles — three times higher than the International Space Station, in a region teeming with dangerous, high-energy particles.

All four underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours on simulators as well as skydiving, scuba diving and summiting an Ecuadoran volcano.

Upcoming tasks include testing laser-based satellite communications between the spacecraft and the vast Starlink satellite constellation, and completing dozens of experiments, including tests on contact lenses with embedded microelectronics to monitor changes in eye pressure and shape in space.

Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX.

Financial terms of the partnership remain under wraps, but Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4Payments, reportedly poured $200 million of his fortune into leading the 2021 all-civilian SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission.

The final Polaris mission aims to be the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship, a prototype next-generation rocket that is key to founder Musk’s ambitions of colonizing Mars.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A dog in United States’ Washington has undergone a successful surgery to remove a volleyball-sized tumour and is now living with its new family. The 5-year-old Pitbull named Libby was brought to the Humane Society of Tacoma-Pierce County along with 40 other neglected animals, according to Fox13. Libby arrived at the animal shelter on August 17 with a 10-pound tumour on the bone of its upper right leg that left the dog unable to move, the outlet further said. 

Two parakeets, five geckos, one bearded dragon, eight snakes, four rabbits and one kitten were the other animals that were handed over to the society for care.

After Libby’s surgery, the centre held a christening ceremony and changed its name to ‘Wiggles’. While the tumour was removed, the dog’s leg was also amputated.

However, it was diagnosed with aggressive bone cancer and veterinarians gave her a shirt life expectancy.

Wiggles was adopted by one of the veterinary technicians who had cared for the dog during surgery. The woman hopes to give the dog a comfortable life now.

The technician told Fox13 that Wiggles loves playing with other dogs and taking naps on the couch wrapped in blankets.

Last month, an animal shelter in Ohio took in more than 80 rescued dogs from what investigators described as “the most horrible conditions”.

The dogs were rescued from another shelter where at least 30 dead canines were in refrigerators and freezers.

Others were discovered in cages filled with urine and faeces.

The animals were held at two structures in Madison Township, which is north of Cincinnati.