CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A tech billionaire popped out from a SpaceX capsule hundreds of miles above Earth and performed the first private spacewalk Thursday, a high-risk endeavor once reserved for professional astronauts.

Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company's new spacesuits on his chartered flight. The feat also saw SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis going out once Isaacman was back inside.

This spacewalk was simple and quick -- the hatch was open barely a half-hour -- compared with the drawn-out affairs conducted by NASA. Astronauts at the International Space Station often need to move across the sprawling complex for repairs, always traveling in pairs and lugging gear. Station spacewalks can last seven to eight hours; this one clocked in at less than two hours.

Isaacman emerged first, joining a small elite group of spacewalkers who until now had included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.

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The commercial spacewalk was the culmination of years of development geared toward settling Mars and other planets.

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