White House Correspondent A billionaire floated in space in the first ever private spacewalk on Thursday – a major milestone for space tourism, and for SpaceX, which aims to make humanity an “interplanetary” species. Businessman Jared Isaacman, 41, stepped out of his capsule while hundreds of miles from Earth, attached to a tether and watched on a live feed. “Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do,” he said as he left through the freshly opened hatch, the world visible beneath him. “But from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” Until now, spacewalks – which are more formally known as extra-vehicular activities, or EVAs – have only been conducted by professional astronauts. Mr Isaacman financed his private flight through a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which follows a similar deal that saw him undertake the first ever fully commercial spaceflight in 2021. He flew alongside Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, two SpaceX engineers. They were joined by Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel who served as the mission’s pilot. As part of the spacewalk, Mr Isaacman and Ms Gillis each left the spacecraft through the hatch for about 15 minutes, during which they tested the movement and other characteristics of SpaceX’s suits, stretching to see whether they could move around properly. SpaceX hopes versions of the suit could one day be used for trips to Mars and elsewhere. Ms Menon and Mr Poteet stayed in the spacecraft during the spacewalk. The four left on Tuesday, before dawn, on board a SpaceX rocket that fired them further from the Earth than any human has been since the Apollo programme.