The highly expected Polaris Dawn mission, featuring the first commercial spacewalk, is now set to launch early Wednesday after a brief delay to address a technical issue. The mission will see four civilians embark on a privately chartered spaceflight, marking another significant milestone for space exploration.
Leading the crew is Jared Isaacman, the billionaire commander and founder of a major credit card transaction processing company. Joining him are former F-16 pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. The crew plans to lift off at 3:38 a.m. EDT, embarking on a 12-minute journey to an elliptical orbit that will take them higher than any astronauts have flown since the Apollo moon missions.
The launch, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed for 24 hours to allow for routine pre-flight checks. A further delay occurred after engineers detected a helium leak in the launch pad's umbilical system, which supplies helium to the rocket booster. Despite these setbacks, SpaceX confirmed on Tuesday that the Falcon 9 rocket is ready for the pre-dawn launch, with favorable weather conditions predicted along Florida's Space Coast.
While the weather at the launch site looks promising, SpaceX is closely monitoring conditions along the rocket's trajectory, particularly for the landing of the first-stage booster on an offshore droneship.
This mission marks the second SpaceX trip to low-Earth orbit funded by Isaacman. In 2021, he financed and commanded the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian commercial flight to orbit. Polaris Dawn is the first of three additional missions Isaacman is sponsoring in collaboration with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, and it will feature the first-ever civilian spacewalks.
During the mission, Isaacman and Gillis will perform spacewalks using a structure known as the "Skywalker." They will take turns exiting the Crew Dragon spacecraft through its forward hatch, tethered at all times by 12-foot-long safety lines. Due to the lack of an airlock, the spacecraft's cabin will be depressurized before the hatch is opened. Poteet and Menon, while not participating in the spacewalk, will also be wearing SpaceX-designed pressure suits and will be counted among the world's spacewalkers.
The primary objective of the spacewalk is to evaluate the new suit's joints, mobility, and comfort. These tests will aid SpaceX engineers in developing more cost-effective and easier-to-produce spacesuits for future missions to the moon and Mars.
Additionally, the crew will test a high-speed laser communication system and conduct a series of biomedical experiments during the five-day mission. These experiments, supported by over 30 research institutions, aim to deepen our understanding of the effects of weightlessness on the human body.
The Polaris Dawn crew is scheduled to return to Earth with a splashdown off the coast of Florida on Labor Day.
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