the first spacewalk by commercial astronauts will be historic, but the mission comes with risks

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The Polaris Dawn mission has attracted a lot of attention because it will be the first ever spacewalk by commercial space travelers. There are many reasons why this is a landmark mission. But with ambition comes a degree of risk.

The mission is backed by Elon Musk's SpaceX company and has no professional astronauts on board. The mission carries a businessman, a fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees. The mission represents an emerging parallel track in orbital spaceflight that is privately funded compared to the upcoming government-backed U.S. Artemis missions ...