The project is historic because such an advanced space exercise has never been done in private ownership before. The spacecraft comes from Elon Musk's company Space X and has been hired for a "charter trip" by billionaire Jared Isaacman.
In a live broadcast on the internet, 41-year-old Isaacman was seen spinning a wheel to unlock the circular hatch of the Dragon capsule, and then he was able to open it out into the emptiness of space. Isaacman grabbed the railing, pulled himself up to look around for a few minutes, with a view down towards the globe, before gliding back into the capsule again.
Then it was the turn of 30-year-old astronaut colleague Sarah Gillis to float around outside the spacecraft for a while. The railings sit around a small viewing platform called Skywalker.
The Farthest Women
In total, there are four people on board for the nearly week-long journey, including pilot Scott Poteet and Space X employee Anna Menon. The capsule does not have an airlock, but during the walk, the "door" is open, which means that all four must wear tight space suits – a test in itself, since the suits are entirely newly developed by Space X.
The Dragon capsule reached an altitude of 1,400 kilometers earlier during the journey – the greatest distance anyone has been from the Earth since the moon expeditions over 50 years ago, according to Space X.
Since only men were part of the moon expeditions, American media note that Gillis and 38-year-old Menon have now set a record as women farthest from the Earth.
It is Isaacman who is financing the entire project, but how much he is paying billionaire colleague Musk for the trip has not been disclosed.
Beyond Authorities
The role of the US space agency NASA is limited to renting out the launch platform at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This development has led experts to ask themselves how the responsibility is distributed – can the US be held accountable if something goes wrong? Experts tell the news site Al Jazeera that the country has that responsibility, according to an agreement signed between space powers in the 1960s.
But according to the aviation authority FAA, such activities are beyond the reach of US authorities. "FAA cannot regulate the safety of commercial space travel for humans under federal law," the authority writes to Al Jazeera.
