Billionaire Jared Isaacman, the first person to conduct a private spacewalk, described his journey on SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission as anything but peaceful. He referred to space as a "hard, very threatening environment."
The crew of Polaris Dawn made a splashdown return to Earth last Sunday, close to the Gulf of Mexico, according to a report that was published in the New York Times on that day. They made history with the first-ever commercial spacewalk and travelled farther from Earth than anyone in over 50 years.
Isaacman shared his thoughts during a Twitter Spaces conversation. “Looking at Earth was special,” he said. “But when you look into the darkness of space and see your spaceship, it hits you: this isn’t going to be easy.”
He emphasised that space isn't welcoming. “It wasn’t peaceful out there,” he noted. “It felt more like: if you want to be here, you have to work for it.”
His comments come as SpaceX plans to send an unmanned mission to Mars in two years, with human missions to follow in four years. Isaacman likened the experience of gazing into space to explorers crossing the Atlantic centuries ago.
“You shouldn’t see that feeling of danger as a deterrent,” he added. “It’s a challenge, just like explorers faced throughout history.”
While in space, the Polaris Dawn team conducted numerous scientific experiments to study how the human body adapts, aiming to make future space travel more sustainable.
