First ever private spacewalk, Billionaire steps outside his SpaceX capsule

 

A crew of four aboard a SpaceX capsule embarked on the world's first private spacewalk on Thursday as two astronauts stepped out into the vacuum of space. 

Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, exited first about 6:52 a.m. ET (10.52 GMT) with SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, taking her turn just a few minutes later. 

'Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,' Isaacman said after emerging from the spacecraft, the planet glittering in half shadow below him.

Spectacular images livestreamed on Space X's website show the awestruck billionaire testing out his suit and carrying out a series of tests.

Although the spacewalk mission was carried out successfully, it has now been revealed there was one minor glitch along the way.

When Jared Isaacman was exiting the capsule, the automatic door mechanism did not work properly and the crew had to open it manually.

This could have been 'really dangerous' and could have 'changed the whole course of the mission', according to Sky News's Thomas Moore.

Images shown on the SpaceX live feed show members of the crew safely back inside the Dragon capsule and sitting behind their screens.

Everyone back at the company's HQ will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief.

The spacewalks - which saw mission commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis exit the aircraft and complete a series of mobility tests - have now ended.

The mission sees them become the first two people to carry out a privately-funded spacewalk.

Everyone is back inside and the hatch has been closed, once again separating the Polaris Dawn crew from space.

The crew is now waiting patiently while the atmosphere inside the craft depressurises.

It is expected that this process could take up to 50 minutes.

According to SpaceX, the mission is going smoothly.