Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman made history Thursday by becoming the first civilian to conduct a private spacewalk, venturing outside SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule after traveling farther from Earth than any human in over 50 years.

A little preview of what to expect during our spacewalk from Dragon. Hopefully, we'll make it look as good as this @SpaceX rendering. https://t.co/fFKp4zZuVk

— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 22, 2024

The spacewalk, which began shortly before 7 a.m., marked a significant milestone in private space exploration. Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4, emerged from the capsule on a tether, facing the vast expanse of space with Earth gleaming below.

"Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world," Isaacman remarked upon exiting the spacecraft, as reported by The New York Post.

The daring feat came after Isaacman and his three crewmembers reached an altitude of nearly 870 miles above Earth's surface, surpassing the Earth-orbiting record set during NASA's Project Gemini in 1966. Only the Apollo mission astronauts who traveled to the moon have ventured further into space.

Isaacman's spacewalk lasted approximately 15 minutes before SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis replaced him. The other two crewmembers, engineer Anna Menon and former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet were also slated to participate in the extravehicular activity.

The entire spacewalk procedure, including preparation and completion, was expected to take about two hours. SpaceX streamed the event live on its website, allowing viewers worldwide to witness this historic moment in commercial spaceflight.

The mission, dubbed Polaris Dawn, is part of a series of three trips Isaacman purchased from SpaceX in 2022. While the cost of these expeditions has not been publicly disclosed, they represent a significant step forward in private space exploration.

Isaacman and his crew launched from Florida on Tuesday for their five-day journey. They wore newly designed SpaceX suits that Isaacman helped develop, which were crucial for protection against the vacuum of space during the spacewalk.

The spacewalk's success was not guaranteed, as SpaceX unexpectedly delayed its start by a few hours. However, the company assured via social media that "all systems are looking good" before proceeding with the mission.

This groundbreaking achievement builds upon Isaacman's previous space endeavor in 2021, when he became the first space tourist to orbit Earth without a professional astronaut onboard.

As private citizens continue to push the boundaries of space exploration, Isaacman's successful spacewalk opens new possibilities for civilian involvement in extraterrestrial activities. It also highlights the growing role of commercial enterprises in advancing space technology and exploration.

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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, participated in Olympic-themed activities in zero gravity to celebrate the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The astronauts organized their own mock Summer Games with events like discus throwing, shotputting, gymnastics, sprints, strength demonstrations, and carrying an "Olympic torch."

The astronauts, except for two, are serving a typical six-month mission on the ISS. The outstanding two astronauts arrived on Boeing's Starliner capsule for a planned weeklong stay, which has been extended due to spacecraft issues.

The 2024 Summer Olympics were hosted in Paris and other French locations, with the opening ceremony taking place on the Seine River, the first time in Summer Games history that the ceremony was held outside a stadium.

Greece led athletes from nearly 200 countries in the Parade of Nations on boats during the opening ceremony.

Sources: Sky News, Times of India, Times Now, Eastern Mirror, Khaleej Times, The Print, NewsBytes, Latestly, Space.com

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

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Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe will take an ancient coin dating to the Bar Kochba revolt with him to outer space, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday.

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"As part of the Rakia Mission to the International Space Station," Stibbe said, "I will be taking with me a bag filled with items that have a special meaning to me. It was clear to me that one of these items will be a symbol of Jewish history."

The Bar Kochba revolt was an uprising of Jews in Judea against the Roman Empire from 132 to 136 AD, led by Simon Bar Kochba. "Year two of the liberty of Israel" is imprinted into the coin, in defiance of Roman sovereignty.

With its depiction of a palm tree and vine leaves, Stibbe said the 1,900-year-old coin represented his connection to the Land of Israel, his love of country, and Israelis' desire for independence, following a visit to the IAA's Dead Sea scrolls laboratory in Jerusalem.

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"The palm tree particularly touched me," he noted, "as it is the symbol of the Agricultural Research Organization at Volcani Center, where my father spent his life conducting research on the country's soil."

Eli Eskosido, director of the IAA, said the rebels "could not have imagined in their wildest dreams that after many centuries, this item would make its way to outer space with a Jewish astronaut who lives in an independent Jewish state."

Stibbe is slated to take off for the International Space Station in late 2021 for a mission of just over a week. He is scheduled to spend 200 hours in space where he will perform a number of experiments using Israeli technology and scientific developments.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Thanks to advancements in technology and the ingenuity of researchers, great discoveries were made. On top of that, glass ceilings were broken as more and more women became front and center in our quest to understand the universe.

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Below is a compilation of the groundbreaking discoveries that brought the far-reaches of space closer than ever.

10. The Parker probe to the sun

There have been numerous missions to the moon, but what about the sun? NASA launched the Parker Probe to the sun in 2018, and it provided the public with surprising images of the sun's corona – the outer halo that is only properly seen during an eclipse. The probe measured intense magnetic fields, harsh solar winds, and revealed that the sun actually emits materials and gases into space. Parker became the first artificial object to ever be in such proximity to our sun and is scheduled to reach the closest-ever distance in 2024.

9. Voyager probes

Although the Voyager 2 Probe was sent into space in 1977, it was the first object to venture beyond our Solar System, and reach interstellar space in 2012. Voyager 2 is the only probe to have flown past both ice giants Uranus and Neptune. It measured magnetic fields, provided photographs, and chartered everything from Jupiter's storm patterns to Saturn's rings, along with the moons of Uranus and Neptune. So far, it's been traveling through space for over 40 years and is currently floating somewhere past the Solar System, some 11 billion miles away from us right now.

8. New Horizons Pluto

The New Horizons spacecraft was sent into space in 2006, but reached Pluto in 2015, photographing fine-detailed pictures of Pluto, and its moons, Charon, Nix and providing two blurrier shots of its moons, Hydra, Styx, and Kerberos. The probe even revealed that icy volcanoes and sharp mountain peaks exist on the icy dwarf planet's surface!

7. The Martian rovers: Curiosity and Opportunity

Both rovers landed on the red planet, the former in 2006, but the latter reached it only in 2016. Not only did the probes grace the worldwide public with depictions of the highly contrasted deserts and mountains, they also collected samples of red dust and other geological rock features for future analysis. Curiosity – a truck-sized rover – even has its own Instagram page, where it updates people of its travels.

6. Exoplanets

While once, many thought that planets solely existed within our Solar System, as research expanded, the discovery of exoplanets was made possible. Soon, the presence of such planets provided proof that perhaps life may exist outside of the Kuiper Belt. However, the possibility of extraterrestrial life was not exclusive to the far-reaches of space. In fact, within our Solar System, scientists have postulated that perhaps life may already exist in several locations, from Saturn's moon, Titan to Jupiter moon, Io, on Mars, and even on the icy bodies of Neptune and Pluto.

5. China and India's lunar missions

While Israel made headlines this past year with its launch of Beresheet into space in February 2019, other countries have made similar headlines this decade in their attempts to carry out lunar landings. Most notably was India's Chandrayyaan mission, which the Indian teams eventually lost contact with prior to its landing, and China's mission in 2018 to the far side of the moon.

4. Katie Bouman – the first image of a black hole

A young female scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Katie Bouman smashed headlines this year by writing algorithms that helped create the first computer-generated image of a black hole. Earlier last year, as well, researchers at Tel Aviv University were the first to calculate, discover, and spot a supermassive black hole, located hundreds of thousands of light-years away from our small blue planet.

3. All-female spacewalk

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conducted the first all-female spacewalk aboard the International Space Station in September 2019. Not only did the duo fix a battery charging unit aboard the station, they spent some six hours floating above our Earth – taking pictures, and even receiving a phone call from US President Donald Trump.

2. NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir

The first female astronaut of Israeli and Mizrahi descent was sent into space this year. Jessica Meir, who recently posted an image of herself wearing Hanukkah-themed socks aboard the International Space Station, made history in September. Meir is a biologist by trade, and pursued numerous research studies the world over. She is the fourth Jewish female astronaut to ever fly in space, and is due to return sometime around April 2020.

1. Beresheet

Israel's first lunar mission blasted off into space this past February in an attempt to make Israel the fourth nation to land upon the lunar surface. Unfortunately, there was a technical malfunction that led to its crash upon the moon, but it still left a large crater in its midst. Either way, the Israeli blue-and-white flag made it to the moon, and that is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Who knows what the 2020s have in store for us humans in this potentially endless universe?

Landing humans on Mars? Clearer images of black holes? The discovery of new habitable planets?

And after that?

Only time will tell.

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Meir joined the crew of the International Space Station in September, and in October became part of the first-ever female spacewalking team.

Meir, who is the fourth Jewish woman and 15^th Jewish astronaut overall to be part of a space mission, brought an Israeli flag to the space station as one of her allowed personal items.

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Meir's late father, born in Iraq, immigrated with his family to pre-state Israel as a young child and later fought in Israel's War of Independence in 1948, according to JTA. He became a doctor and took a job in Sweden, where he met Meir's mother; together, they moved to Maine when Meir's father was offered a job there.

"My father's globe-spanning journey as a surgeon from the Middle East, to Europe, and eventually to the US was an inspiration to many in my immediate and extended family. #TheJourney," tweeted Meir on Friday.

My father's globe spanning journey as a surgeon from the Middle East, to Europe, and eventually to the U.S. was an inspiration to many in my immediate and extended family. #TheJourney pic.twitter.com/wBN1Iz7O5O

— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) November 1, 2019

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin responded to the photos in a tweet, saying, "Dear Jessica, that you for taking us with you on your space voyage. We are proud of you and send warm regards from Israel."

Meir is expected to stay on the ISS until the spring of 2020.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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During a special weeklong celebration, scientists, experts, and two astronauts spoke at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum in Denver, Colorado this past week. The museum is home to numerous airplanes and fighter jets, which have been decommissioned or retired from the US Air Force as well as a new space shuttle, Dream Chaser slated for launch in spring 2020.

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Astronauts Joe Engle and former Senator Harrison Schmitt spoke with Israel Hayom and shared their experiences in deep space.

Schmitt, a Republican who represented New Mexico in the US Senate from 1977 to 1983, was the last of 12 astronauts to have set foot on the moon.

"I was the last astronaut to have stepped foot on the moon," he said. "It was the end of an era."

His most memorable moment during his service at NASA was flying on the Apollo 17 mission that landed in 1972 on the lunar surface. While there, Schmitt and his team collected various geological data – over 240 pounds of lunar rocks – to study and from which to gather further research.

"It's the gift that keeps on giving," Schmitt said, adding that while back in the 1960s, technology was not as sophisticated as it is today, current computer advancements lead scientists to glean even more data from the rocks gathered nearly five decades ago.

Schmitt was part of a unique program in NASA that trained scientists to become astronauts. Originally trained as a geologist, having worked in Norway, Schmitt partnered with scientists at Flagstaff, Arizona to map the surface of the moon in preparation for the first human landing.

After earning his pilot's wings from the US Air Force and passing numerous tests, he was deployed in space in 1972 and conducted various geological experiments on the lunar surface.

Schmitt later served as a US senator and followed his political career with one as a geology professor. When asked what he thought of Israel's first spacecraft to the moon, Beresheet, he said, "I think it was a great success! It got to the moon. And I think Israel is fantastic for embarking on such a mission."

He then detailed the long trial and error period that NASA underwent to achieve its first successful launch and landing, noting not only the numerous scientists and engineers who poured their hearts and souls to the task at hand but also the administrators, project managers, and seamstresses who sew the astronauts' space suits. The latter crew comprised mainly of women, who were often unmentioned as being a major force behind the lunar mission.

Many do not realize the intense efforts that go into such a project on all fronts, Schmitt said, adding that he commends the Jewish state on this great project. "One must remember – it is the young people who help these missions become a reality" – their endless labor and toil put astronauts or even spacecraft into the far reaches of the universe.

Astronaut Joe Engle took part in flight test missions that were conducted even before an actual space shuttle was built.

Engle grew up in Kansas and pursued a degree in engineering, later serving in the US Air Force as well.

Prior to the first space shuttle, numerous fighter planes were developed and tested by fearless pilots, who risked their lives for the singular mission of putting Americans in space. Several of these planes were able to reach startling velocities and flew above the Earth's atmosphere without the protection that space shuttles have today.

Engle was most famous for flying the X-15 plane, which flew up to 4,520 miles per hour.

Although the technology was not as advanced in the 1950s as it is today, Engle explained that the engineers used giant automated computers and algorithm-generating machines to test and try to improve the plane's speed.

That in itself was quite remarkable, he said.

Lastly, Engle told Israel Hayom that "being up there in the X-15 – it was a crazy plane – was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It was hard, dangerous, and risky but it was the most fun I've had in my life."

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