# Musk and Commercial Spacewalks (Polaris Dawn) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [September 10, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071 "2024-09-10T16:50:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/1 "2024-09-10T16:50:39Z")
SpaceX is launching civilians into the Van Allen belt as part of the first commercial spacewalk. It seems daring, and may break a few records. Will it do more? Is this anything? > **[SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn crew on daring excursion into Earth’s radiation...](https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/science/polaris-dawn-mission-spacex-launch/index.html)** > > The Polaris Dawn mission took off Tuesday morning. The civilian crew launched aboard a SpaceX capsule into Earth’s orbit to attempt an unprecedented spacewalk. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/2 "2024-09-10T21:01:34Z")
Try to damp down your enthusiasm! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/3 "2024-09-10T21:08:04Z")
My prediction is that one will come back stretchy, one will get covered with rocks, one will be able to catch on fire, and one will turn invisible. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/4 "2024-09-10T21:10:37Z")
As long as they don’t come back super intelligent. (Swivels around in chair. Adopts Eton accent.) “No, we won’t be telling them that.” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/5 "2024-09-10T21:23:00Z")
I hope it doesn’t cause advertising mascots to come to life. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DwYBXCxXCS8/hqdefault.jpg "The Simpsons - Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwYBXCxXCS8&t=39) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/6 "2024-09-10T21:30:43Z")
It’s not particularly daring compared to, say, Apollo. But that was 50 years ago, and NASA hasn’t done anything comparable since. This is a purely commercial venture (though it depends on a capsule developed partly with NASA funds). And indeed it’s a significant step for commercial spaceflight even if it’s not particularly daring with respect to the whole history of spaceflight. Are we on the cusp of a golden age of commercial spaceflight, with space hotels and lunar colonies and all that? Impossible to say. So maybe the current mission is a blip or maybe it’s one in a long chain of developments until we get there. This mission is almost entirely driven by Jared Isaacman, in any case. SpaceX is providing the services and is deeply involved, but Isaacman is the one footing the bill and he’s been (and will continue to be) on all the flights. There’s a bit of billionaire joyride to be sure, but they’re doing real science and it’s helping to develop SpaceX’s EVA suits. They’re a significant step beyond the previous flight suits, though it will take much more development for lunar/Mars suits. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2024, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/7 "2024-09-12T22:08:15Z")
Of course there is always video footage. [https://www.cnn.com/shorts/events-mw-cnn-shorts?iid=vertical-video\_entry](https://www.cnn.com/shorts/events-mw-cnn-shorts?iid=vertical-video_entry) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/8 "2024-09-15T21:05:38Z")
And more lauding. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/15/spacex-polaris-dawn-mission-spacewalk/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/15/spacex-polaris-dawn-mission-spacewalk/) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/9 "2024-09-15T21:16:13Z")
The violin piece was pretty damn cool: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0yHjVU_nbvI/maxresdefault.jpg "DAY 4 - Groundbreaking! Starlink demo Polaris Dawn recorded music play in space @SpaceX") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yHjVU_nbvI) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-and-commercial-spacewalks-polaris-dawn/1007071/10 "2024-09-16T02:19:49Z")
Some cool video of the splashdown: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/As1CnvYB5Mo/maxresdefault.jpg "LIVE: SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth after first private spacewalk") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As1CnvYB5Mo&t=4035) I timestamped it to the parachute deployment but the rest is fairly interesting as well. The recovery ops are quite beautiful with the lights. Though the glowing bunny ear hats are amusing. I’m gonna guess that’s in case someone is lost in the dark. It’s a finely-tuned operation, in any case.