WASHINGTON — Two astronauts — a billionaire and an engineer — completed the world's first private spacewalk in orbit on Thursday (Sept 13) outside a SpaceX capsule, wearing a new line of spacesuits in a risky feat previously exclusive to astronauts from national space programmes.

The astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission went one at a time, each spending about 10 minutes outside the gumdrop-shaped Crew Dragon capsule on a tether, as Elon Musk's company again succeeded in pushing the boundaries of commercial spaceflight.

Jared Isaacman, a pilot and the founder of electronic payments company Shift4 exited first, followed by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, while crewmates Scott Poteet and Anna Menon watched from inside. The whole process, unfolding about 450 miles (730 km) above Earth, lasted an hour and 46 minutes. The four astronauts have been orbiting Earth since Tuesday's launch from Florida.

Isaacman is bankrolling the Polaris mission, as he did his Inspiration4 flight with SpaceX in 2021.

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