A SpaceX capsule carrying four civilians lifted off Tuesday morning for a five-day mission, marking the first spacewalk ever conducted by an all-civilian crew.
The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, launched at 5:24 a.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The flight is designed to take the four-member crew to the highest orbital altitude humans have reached since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972: 870 miles above the Earth’s surface. That’s more than three times higher than the International Space Station. While in space, the group will test new spacesuits and technologies that could pave the way for future long-duration missions to the moon and eventually Mars.
The Polaris Dawn launch was originally scheduled for late August, but was postponed after a helium leak was discovered on the launch pad. The launch was then postponed again due to bad weather off the coast of Florida, where the SpaceX capsule was scheduled to land at the end of the expedition.
The four-person crew includes billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4; retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet; and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Isaacman, who previously funded and participated in SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission to orbit in 2021, is funding the Polaris Dawn mission in partnership with SpaceX.
The spacewalk is scheduled for the third day of the mission. Isaacman and Gillis are expected to exit the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a tether, but because the spacecraft does not have a pressurized airlock, the entire capsule will be decompressed and exposed to vacuum conditions. Therefore, all four astronauts will wear and test newly designed spacesuits during the spacewalk.
If successful, the excursion will make history. Previously, only astronauts from government space agencies ventured into the vacuum of space to build or upgrade orbiting space stations, repair satellites and conduct scientific experiments.
During the journey, the Crew Dragon capsule’s orbit will be far enough away to fly through the inner regions of the Van Allen radiation belt, a zone of high-energy radiation particles trapped by Earth’s magnetosphere.
The mission will allow scientists to study the effects of space radiation on the astronauts and the vehicle. The findings could help SpaceX plan future missions to the moon and Mars, which will require astronauts to fly through the inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts.
Isaacman launched the Polaris program in partnership with SpaceX to test technologies and maneuvers for exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned space flights the billionaire is funding. He did not disclose the cost of the program or the potential objectives and timing of the other missions.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
