Elon Musks’ SpaceX Completes World’s First Private Spacewalk

Two private astronauts from a SpaceX capsule have carried out the world's first private spacewalk, becoming the first two non-government people to conduct such a space mission. Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, did the risky maneuver tethered to the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the vacuum of space  hundreds of miles from Earth. while two others watched from inside.

"Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world," Isaacman told Reuters after emerging from the spacecraft.

Although the spacewalk was scheduled to last only about 30 minutes, it ended up taking  an hour and 46 minutes due to the time-consuming procedures to prepare for it. 

SpaceX recently kicked off a less eccentric but arguably more important mission: launching satellites to track methane emissions. Last month, Carbon Mapper launched the company's first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1, along with 36 SuperDoves (Flock 4BE) into orbit during the Transporter-11 Rideshare mission with SpaceX. 

Developed by Planet Labs PBC with technology from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tanager-1 will pinpoint methane and carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities. Carbon Mapper will focus on tracking methane “super emitters,” including oil and gas wells, large livestock operations, landfills, and industrial refineries. 

The U.S. Oil & Gas sector is producing 8x above the volume of methane many operators have pledged to achieve by 2030 to reach their climate goals, a fresh study by non-profit Environmental Defense Fund has revealed, as reported by Bloomberg. 

The environmental advocacy group conducted ~30 flights between June and October of last year, covering oil and gas basins that account for nearly three-quarters of onshore production. The data collected showed that, on average, around 1.6% of gross gas production is released as methane into the atmosphere, about eight times higher than pledged by producers under the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative and the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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