Elon Musks SpaceX completes world’s first private spacewalk

Two private astronauts in a SpaceX capsule performed the world’s first private spacewalkbecoming the first two non-government individuals to lead such a space mission. Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, performed the risky maneuver involving the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the vacuum of space hundreds of miles from Earth. while two others watched from inside.

“Back home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,Isaacman told Reuters after exiting 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 launched a less eccentric but arguably more important mission: launching satellites to track methane emissions. Last month, Carbon Mapper launched tThe company’s first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1, along with 36 SuperDoves (Flock 4BE) in 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 identify 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 US oil and gas sector is producing 8 times the amount of methane that many operators have pledged to achieve by 2030 to meet their climate goals, a new study by the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund has revealed. -profit, as reported by Bloomberg.

The environmental advocacy group flew about 30 flights between June and October last year, covering oil and gas basins that account for nearly three-quarters of the land’s production. The data collected showed that, on average, about 1.6% of gross gas production is released as methane into the atmosphere, about eight times more than promised by producers under Oil and Gas Climate Initiative and the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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