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Upping the stakes in the nascent private space-travel business, SpaceX unveiled a new spacesuit that will provide its upcoming Crew Dragon charter mission with the unprecedented ability to include a spacewalk.

The flight, slated to launch this summer, is the first of three technology demonstration missions developed and funded by entrepreneur-adventurer Jared Isaacman. The initiative, known as the Polaris Program, follows Isaacmans 2021 Inspiration4 mission, which marked SpaceXs first private charter and Isaacmans debut as a private astronaut.

The Polaris Program opens with a four-member crew launching onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon into an orbit reaching nearly 750 mi. above Earth. The capsule is then planned to boost itself into an 870-mi.-high orbit, the highest altitude for a crewed spaceflight since the final Apollo Moon mission in 1972. After seven orbits, during which sensors will collect data about the radiation environment, the Dragon is to descend to an orbit about 435 mi. above Earth for the first spacewalk by private astronauts.

Since SpaceXs Crew Dragon lacks an airlock, the entire capsule will be depressurized during extravehicular activity (EVA) operations, which are expected to last 2 hr.

Isaacman, 41, will be accompanied outside the capsule by crewmate and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis. Others on the Polaris kickoff mission, known as Polaris Dawn, are SpaceX employee Anna Menon and Isaacmans longtime friend and colleague Scott Kidd Poteet, mission director for Inspiration4.

Depressurizing the Dragon will require all four crewmembers to don EVA suits. The suits, which have been in development at SpaceX for two years and were unveiled on May 4, are based on the pressure suits worn by Dragon crewmembers during launch and reentry. SpaceX so far has flown 13 crews into orbit, including nine missions for NASA, three private charters to the space station for Houston-based Axiom Space and Isaacmans Inspiration4 mission.

With mobility in mind, SpaceX teams incorporated new materials, fabrication processes and novel joint designs to provide greater flexibility to astronauts in pressurized scenarios while retaining comfort for unpressurized scenarios, SpaceX wrote on its website. The 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor to reduce glare during the EVA in addition to the new head-up display and camera that provide information on the suits pressure, temperature and relative humidity.

The suit also incorporates enhancements for reliability and redundancy during a spacewalk, adding seals and pressure valves to help ensure the suit remains pressurized and the crew remains safe, the company stated.

The EVA spacesuit features:

The suit fits like a glove, Poteet wrote on X. So comfortable its hard not to take micro-naps between sim sessions.

The Polaris Dawn crew will wear the EVA suits for launch and reentry as well. This suit is to be our first design of the EVA suit, SpaceX Vice President for Dragon Stuart Keech said in a May 4 presentation. Were going to continue through block upgrades as we go forward and learn.

The spacewalk will include a hands-free demonstration using a foot-mobility aid, Isaacman added.

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SpaceX Unveils Spacesuit For Private Astronaut Spacewalk - Aviation Week