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What it is: An image of private astronaut Jared Isaacman on the first-ever commercial spacewalk
Where it is: Partially outside the hatch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft, which was at an altitude of 458 miles (737 kilometers) above Earth's surface at the time
When it was shared: Sept. 12, 2024
Why it's so special: The 106-minute jaunt through empty space that crowned SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission represents the first-ever spacewalk by a commercial crew.
On Sept. 10, 2024, four private astronauts — Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft.
Around 15 hours later, the team reached an altitude of 870 miles (1,400 km), the highest altitude reached since the Apollo missions, Live Science's sister site Space.com reported.
From there, the spacecraft plummeted hundreds of miles and depressurized the cabin before Isaacson and Gillis briefly stepped out of the capsule. The duo was conducting mobility tests in new spacewalk suits designed by SpaceX, which could potentially be used for future missions to Mars.
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Isaacman entered the void of space around 6:50 a.m. EDT (1050 GMT), and Gillis left the hatch at 7:04 a.m. EDT (1104 GMT). The cabin began repressurizing at 7:14 a.m. EDT (1114 GMT), according to Space.com.
Isaacman, who is shown in the image, is a 41-year-old tech billionaire who funded the mission.
"Back at home, we still have a lot of work to do," Isaacson said as he raised himself out of the hatch and looked out onto our home planet from the darkness of space. "But from here, it looks like a perfect world."
For more sublime space images, check out our Space Photo of the Week archives.
Tia is the editor-in-chief (premium) and was formerly managing editor and senior writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired.com, Science News and other outlets. She holds a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington, a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Tia was part of a team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that published the Empty Cradles series on preterm births, which won multiple awards, including the 2012 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.