On September 9, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was readied at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the much-anticipated Polaris Dawn mission. This mission will feature a private crew of four astronauts attempting the first-ever commercial spacewalk, utilizing SpaceX’s newly developed spacesuits and a redesigned spacecraft.
The crew, consisting of a billionaire entrepreneur, a former military pilot, and two SpaceX engineers, is scheduled to launch at 3:38 AM ET. This mission will mark the fifth private space journey aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which is considered the riskiest yet.
A previous launch attempt last month was postponed due to a minor helium leak on the launch pad. With the issue resolved, SpaceX is ready to proceed, though weather conditions provide only a 40% chance of a successful launch on Tuesday. Alternative launch windows are set for 5:23 AM and 7:09 AM.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has emphasized the high stakes of this mission, stating, “Crew safety is paramount, but this mission carries more risk than usual. It will take humans the farthest from Earth since the Apollo era and feature the first commercial spacewalk.”
About the Polaris Dawn Mission
The Polaris Dawn mission will last approximately five days, orbiting Earth in an elliptical path that ranges between 190 km and 1,400 km from the planet’s surface. This will be the furthest humans have ventured into space since the Apollo moon missions of the early 1970s.
The historic spacewalk is scheduled for the third day of the mission at an altitude of 700 km and will last around 20 minutes. Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), the Crew Dragon capsule lacks an airlock, requiring the entire cabin to be depressurized. The crew will depend on SpaceX-built spacesuits to provide oxygen during the walk.
Leading the mission is Jared Isaacman, a 41-year-old pilot and billionaire founder of Shift4, a payment processing company. Although the cost of the mission remains undisclosed, it is believed to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Isaacman will be accompanied by mission pilot Scott Poteet, a 50-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
Isaacman and Gillis will conduct the spacewalk, tethered to the spacecraft by oxygen lines, while Poteet and Menon remain inside the capsule. Throughout the mission, the crew will participate in scientific experiments to study the effects of cosmic radiation and the vacuum of space on the human body.
