- SpaceX pulled off its first private spacewalk.
- Two members of the Polaris Dawn mission’s crew — Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis — stepped outside of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, protected from the harsh environment of space by the company’s suits.
- Isaacman and Gillis spent about seven minutes each outside the capsule, with a focus on testing the mobility of the spacesuits.
Oh man, movement in those suits seems… shall we say, more than a little restricted. Pressurized, they look as rigid as a zeppelin.
I am not defending shmelon but traditional space suits are also extremely difficult to move in and have some very unpleasant aspects when in null pressure environments. Some astronauts have been knowm to have their fingernails removed before a mission because otherwise they might get pulled off while working due to the rigidity of the suit.
Oh I know! It turns out space suits are just really tricky. I was hoping to see some innovation and improvements in mobility from SpaceX, but, not so much apparently. I guess we’ll have to wait for NASA’s xEMU for any real improvement.
No gravity, dude. You have no idea what the natural resting position of your tendons are without gravity.