SpaceX completed its riskiest feat yet as it tries to lead the astro industry to Mars

Getting your pilot’s license is so passé… Billionaires’ new expensive hobby is astronaut training. Tech billionaire Jared Isaacman and three fellow private astronauts yesterday completed the first commercial spacewalk (aka any time astronauts exit the vehicle). Two crew members poked their heads out of the cabin for about 10 minutes each, narrating their experience back to earthlings through a livestream. Isaacman funded the five-day SpaceX mission (“Polaris Dawn”), considered the rocket company’s riskiest mission ever.

• Stellar exclusivity: Only 263 people had ever hung out in the big ol’ void before this. Three of the Polaris Dawn crew had previously never been to space — nor had their new SpaceX-developed suits.

• Trilogy: Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions (it’s giving “Before Sunrise”) meant to prep SpaceX to eventually head “to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

One small step for humans… one giant leap for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has prioritized scientific advancements over space-tourism selfies. Other commercial space cos, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, have taken private citizens to the edge of space for minutes of in-vehicle floating. Before the spacewalk, SpaceX had flown a handful of private citizens to the International Space Station (a trip said to have cost ~$55M/seat). Beyond tourism, SpaceX has been tapped by NASA for help with missions.

• BRB: NASA last month enlisted a SpaceX capsule to retrieve two astronauts stranded on the ISS after Boeing’s glitchy craft had to leave them behind.

• Billions: NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9B contract to build a lunar lander in 2021. Bezos’ Blue Origin sued, suggesting more than one company should’ve been included, and NASA last year gave Blue Origin a $3.4B lunar-lander contract.