Polaris Dawn, a private space mission set to achieve the first-ever civilian spacewalk, is scheduled for launch this week. SpaceX announced on X that they are targeting Tuesday, August 27, at 3:38 AM ET for the liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket, which will carry the Polaris Dawn crew into orbit.
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Led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission aims to send its four-member crew of private citizens as far as 870 miles from Earth, farther than any human has traveled since the Apollo program. The spacewalk, during which two crew members will step outside the SpaceX Dragon capsule, will occur at an altitude of 435 miles above Earth.
Polaris Dawn and SpaceX completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities ahead of liftoff on Tuesday pic.twitter.com/qz2RD5bnVM
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 25, 2024
The Polaris Dawn crew consists of Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4, serving as commander; retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet as pilot; and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon as mission specialists. Menon will also act as the mission’s medical officer. The mission is expected to last approximately five days.
Although only two crew members will perform the spacewalk, all members will be exposed to the vacuum of space when the hatch opens, as the Dragon capsule lacks an airlock. This mission will serve as a critical test for SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity (EVA) space suits, which the entire Polaris Dawn crew will wear to ensure their safety.
Menon expressed confidence in the suits’ performance, noting that they have undergone extensive ground testing. “We absolutely know the suits can pressurize there,” Menon said, adding that the team has “spent a lot of time pressurizing the suits at this point.”
In addition to the spacewalk, Polaris Dawn will test Starlink’s laser-based communications in space for the first time and gather data to support research on the effects of spaceflight on human health. This mission, several years in the making, is the first of three planned Polaris spaceflights.
