The all-civilian crew of the Polaris Dawn mission, funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and designed by SpaceX, aims to reach heights higher than any astronaut since the Apollo missions of the 1970s. The crew plans to conduct a spacewalk, an achievement previously only accomplished by government astronauts. The launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the crew has been delayed by at least 24 hours, with liftoff now scheduled for Tuesday at the earliest. The crew will ascend to 870 miles above Earth’s surface before descending to a cruising orbit at 435 miles. They will spend five days in orbit conducting scientific experiments, exploring space technology, and testing a new laser-based communication system. The crew will also attempt to conduct the first-ever private spacewalk, exposing all four members to the vacuum of space as the capsule lacks an airlock. The Polaris Program, of which this mission is the first, aims to test SpaceX technologies for deep space exploration. The second mission under the program will further expand the boundaries of human spaceflight missions and in-space communications. The ultimate goal is for the third and final Polaris Program mission to be the first human spaceflight on the SpaceX Starship rocket, which would ferry NASA astronauts to the moon’s surface as part of the Artemis program.
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SpaceX postpones commercial Polaris Dawn orbital mission by one day
