A SpaceX capsule carrying four private citizens launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a five-day mission known as Polaris Dawn. This mission is set to include the first spacewalk carried out by an all-civilian crew and will reach an orbital altitude of 870 miles above Earth’s surface, higher than the International Space Station. The crew includes billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
The launch was initially postponed due to a helium leak and then delayed again because of poor weather. The crew will test new spacesuits and technologies that could help future missions to the moon and Mars, including passing through the Van Allen radiation belt to study the effects of space radiation. The spacewalk is scheduled for the third day of the mission, where Isaacman and Gillis will exit the spacecraft on a tether.
Isaacman is funding the Polaris Dawn mission in partnership with SpaceX as part of the Polaris program, which aims to test technologies for exploring beyond Earth’s orbit. This mission is the first of three planned spaceflights, but details about the cost and objectives of the program’s future missions have not been disclosed. The success of the Polaris Dawn mission could pave the way for future long-duration space missions and scientific exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.
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