After multiple delays, it looks like SpaceX will finally be able to launch a four-person crew for the Polaris Dawn mission in a few hours. We can’t wait to see the live action.
This spaceflight is a huge milestone. If all goes according to plan, Polaris Dawn will travel farther from Earth than any human has in more than 50 years, since the Apollo missions ended in the 1970s.
Even more exciting are plans for the first private spacewalk.
The Dragon spacecraft aims to reach a peak altitude of more than 1,400 kilometers (about 870 miles) above Earth. That’s more than twice the average altitude the International Space Station maintains as it completes its 15.5 orbits of our planet each day.
A 4-hour launch window begins on Tuesday, September 10 at 07:38 UTC (03:38 ET), with two more opportunities at 09:23 UTC and 11:09 UTC.
Here you can watch the live broadcast from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
A helium leak last month delayed the mission, along with unfavorable weather conditions along the Florida coast, where Dragon will land after returning from space.
Then another SpaceX Falcon 9 mission lost his first stage boostercausing the launch vehicle that NASA and private companies use to launch astronauts and satellites into orbit to be temporarily grounded.
SpaceX says the weather is 40 percent favorable, so fingers crossed for the team! There are also backup launch opportunities on Wednesday.
The crew includes pilot Scott Poteet, SpaceX aerospace engineer Sarah Gillis, and SpaceX physician Anna Menon. The crew is also led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who in 2021 commanded SpaceX’s Inspiration4, the first all-civilian spaceflight.
The team will conduct 36 experiments during their five days in space, including testing Starlink laser-based communications and studying the effects of space on the human body.
The crew of Polaris Dawn will wear smart contact lenses in space to monitor intraocular pressure. They’re doing this to learn more about Spaceflight Associated Neuroocular Syndrome, or SANS, as part of a research experiment out of the University of Colorado Boulder.
This is just one of 36… photo.twitter.com/QoTJsjOSzc
—John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos) August 21, 2024
As Gillis and Isaacman undertake the first-ever civilian spacewalk, the entire crew of Polaris Dawn will be exposed to the vacuum of space, putting SpaceX’s new and improved spacesuit design to the test.
Although none of the team members are professional astronauts, they have more than two years of astronaut experience. rigorous preparation for the missionincluding parachuting, centrifuge and altitude training, simulations, medical training and introduction to the spacesuits in a vacuum environment.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program and is described as “a unique effort to rapidly advance the capabilities of human spaceflight while raising funds and awareness for important causes on Earth.”
Perhaps the most rewarding part of this amazing space flight will be Menon giving a lecture from her book, Kiss from spacewhich she wrote to share her experiences with her two young children. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to a children’s hospital.
