This is the moment the team on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission started to move out of the capsule.

They were effectively testing out a new design and new techniques, while paying for the privilege courtesy of billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who is indeed the first person out of the capsule.

And let's show you these live pictures now from inside the capsule, because after being out in space for Jared Isaacman and also Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, the team of four, there are four on board the capsule, are now waiting while it re-pressurises.

Remember, there was no airlock here on this craft.

The whole craft had to depressurise to allow the pressure inside to become equal with that of the space around them, to match the pressure of that space.

And now it has to be re-pressurised.

So that is the process we're seeing the four astronauts go through at the moment.

And of course, just a reminder, they're not professional astronauts.

That's one of the many new aspects of what we've seen taking place today on this historic mission.

And I'm joined now, I'm pleased to say, by Libby Jackson, who is the head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency.

Libby, great to have you with us on such a significant day, a day of many firsts.

Many, many firsts.

It is fantastic to see that this commercial space sector in low Earth orbit is taking these steps, because it is the transition from a government-funded enterprise, which we've seen over the last 50, 60 years, to a place where there are new opportunities, new investors, new funding coming in.

And the opportunities that that will bring for technology, for new materials, things like new pharmaceuticals, will ultimately benefit everybody back on Earth.

One question people might have is, why isn't NASA, for example, doing this?

Why is a commercial enterprise doing this?

Well, it's been the goal of space agencies around the world, including NASA, including the UK Space Agency, to see this transition take place.

So SpaceX have contracts with NASA for parts of NASA's work.

They ferry crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station.

They will be landing astronauts on the moon in the coming years.

But this is something that SpaceX have developed.

And that technology development independently is all part of SpaceX's plan.

And that will benefit NASA as well, because we'll see that space technology potentially feed into future government-funded missions as well.

And of course, this is all part of the wider future exploration of space.

That's what lies behind missions like this.

How dangerous, though?

How risky was it for the four?

Everything, thankfully, seems to have gone very well so far.

It's been really good to see the hatchery pressurization and the spacewalk coming to an end, because it was the first time this has ever been done.

And a spacewalk is always a risky part of any mission, along with the launch and the landing.

Those are the three parts where there is the most risk to astronauts.

But anybody undertaking this, SpaceX in this case, always go to great lengths to make sure that the safety of the crew is paramount, that spacecraft will have been tested, the spacesuits will have been tested.

And it does look like everything's gone well.

But to have all four astronauts exposed to space, all of them were in these pressure suits.

All of them were in that vacuum of space.

That's not been done really since the Gemini missions right back in the 1960s, when we were learning how to live and work in space.

And so it's really good to see that this spacewalk appears to have all gone successfully, and the crew are safely back in their capsules.

Yes, talk to us a little bit more, Libby, about these new spacesuits being used for the first time outside a spacecraft.

Much less bulky than what people are used to seeing, of course.

And we saw Jared Eisenman and Sarah Gillis moving their arms around a lot, I guess, to show, to test that flexibility.

Yeah, one of the reasons they're much less bulky compared to what people might be used to seeing on the International Space Station is that they don't have a big backpack on board.

Astronauts who are carrying out spacewalks on the ISS are completely in their own spacecraft.

They're tethered to the spacecraft through cables.

But all the oxygen, all the cooling, everything they need to keep them alive is contained within the spacesuit.

And these spacesuits that we've seen today have an umbilical.

They have a cable feeding the oxygen, feeding all the power, everything that they need.

So they were permanently connected to their spacecraft.

But still, the new technology has enabled better joints, thinner materials.

There's been a heads-up display inside those helmets, allowing the crew to see better the status of their spacesuit.

And all of these technology developments are great because we haven't seen new spacesuits developed for decades.

There are now new spacesuits being developed, not just by SpaceX here, but also looking forward, we will have to have new spacesuits for landing on the moon, for the Lunar Gateway.

And so, yeah, technology pushing forward, improving spacesuits benefits everybody in space.

But we'll see the technology also filter through into applications on Earth into similar places.

And that's great.

So we're continuing, Libby, as we chat, to watch these live pictures.

I always find it incredible.

I never tire of something like this, seeing these live pictures from space coming to us.

And alongside Jared Eisman and Sarah Gillis, who I've already mentioned, we have Scott Petit, who's the mission pilot and a retired US Air Force Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and Anna Menon, also a SpaceX senior engineer.

They're the other two members of the crew.

And it's interesting to observe that at the moment, Libby, there are more people in space than ever before since the history of space exploration began.

It is fantastic.

It's wonderful to see.

We've got the crew on the International Space Station who have just been joined, I think, yesterday by the new crew launching in the Soyuz.

So there are nine there.

There are the four on board Polaris Dawn, and there are the three Taikonauts on the Chinese Space Station.

It's a sign of what is happening in low Earth orbit.

Slowly but surely, this is opening up new opportunities.

There will be commercial opportunities there.

We will see new areas of economy develop.

We know that if we develop new materials in space where you don't feel the effects of gravity, we can make things like semiconductors, things like pharmaceuticals that have different properties that can be more energy efficient, that will potentially treat cancer in different ways.

These are the sorts of developments that we will see as low Earth orbit becomes more commercial.

It's one of the reasons the UK Space Agency is working with Axiom Space to a potentially fully commercially funded mission in the future.

We have to find new ways of bringing in new investment, new ways of operating, as governments look to push the boundaries, perhaps to return to the Moon and maybe one day onto Mars.

Okay.

It's busy up there at the moment, isn't it?

Libby, thank you very much.

Libby Jackson, Head of Space Exploration at the UK Space Agency.

Thank you.