After several weeks of delays, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying four private sector astronauts for the Polaris Dawn mission lifted off in the early hours of September 10 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission was scheduled to launch at the end of August, but was postponed first due to technical issues and then due to forecasted bad weather for the crew’s return. On board are billionaire Jared Isaacman, who funded the mission, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Kidd Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. During the five-day flight, they will attempt several firsts, including the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
The attempt will be the first spacewalk by the Dragon spacecraft. One of Polaris Dawn’s other goals is to send a crew as far away as anyone has gone since the Apollo missions, to an altitude of about 870 miles above Earth. On the journey, the spacecraft and crew will briefly enter the Van Allen radiation belts.
of @Polaris ProgramThe Polaris Dawn mission will be the first crew to perform a spacewalk from Dragon, fly higher in Earth’s orbit than anyone since the Apollo missions, and perform a laser-based @Starlink Conduct research to provide insight into human health in communication and … pic.twitter.com/RW387QWShY
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 22, 2024
Polaris Dawn will be the first of three crewed spaceflight missions under Isaacman’s Polaris program. The crew will put SpaceX’s new spacewalk suits to their most important test yet, as the entire crew will don the suits to protect them from the vacuum of space when the Dragon door opens and the spacewalk begins. The walk will take place in an elliptical orbit about 435 miles above Earth’s surface, with the two crew members exiting the capsule.
