The mission will see private astronauts attempt a spacewalk for the first time in history, and spaceflight enthusiasts will be able to watch it live.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be the first all-private mission to include a spacewalk. Credit: SpaceX
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, SpaceX plans to launch four civilian astronauts on its more experimental and risky The first manned space flight ever. And you'll be able to follow the crew as they attempt feats that haven't been accomplished in over half a century, if ever.
Polaris Dawn, a five-day orbital mission purchased from the company by Jared Isaacman, the billionaire chief executive of Shift4 Payments, is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than 3:38 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning. Backup launch opportunities are available at 5:23 a.m. EDT and 7:09 a.m. EDT, with the same roughly four-hour window open Wednesday morning.
Spaceflight enthusiasts can watch as SpaceX livestreams the launch and mission highlights, including the first-ever attempt at a civilian spacewalk. website, Account Xand YouTube ChannelCoverage will begin 3.5 hours before takeoff. The company and Isaacman Polaris Program Mission updates will be posted on their websites and social media.
Why is this mission important?
Polaris Dawn’s four-person crew includes Isaacman and retired Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, as well as SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who will be the company’s first female employees in space. They will ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and circle the Earth in a modified version of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule.
The Dragon, which in 2021 transported the first all-private crew of astronauts on the Inspiration4 The mission, also acquired by Isaacman, required some major adjustments to support the historic private spacewalk. Arguably the riskiest part of the mission, spectators will be able to witness it in real time.
Only two astronauts will emerge from the capsule, using newly installed mobility assist devices to perform tests in SpaceX’s specially designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits. The spacewalk is scheduled for the third day of the flight, which would be Thursday if it launches as planned.
“It will seem like we are doing a little dance.” saying Last month, Isaacman said: “We are doing a matrix test of the suit. The idea is to learn as much as we can about this suit and send it back to the engineers to serve as a basis for future evolutions in the suit design.”
However, because Dragon has no airlock, the four crew members will be exposed to the vacuum of space. To prepare, NASA engineers “baked” the inside of the capsule using what is basically a giant oven. The goal was to burn off any toxic chemicals that might be released when oxygen is expelled from the cabin.
A lot of work has also gone into preparing astronauts and their suits for the EVA. In the two days leading up to the spacewalk, for example, crew members will perform what’s known as a “pre-breath” to remove nitrogen bubbles that can form inside body tissues and cause decompression sickness.
In addition, astronauts have spent nearly 100 hours in spacesuits and thousands of hours preparing using simulators, vacuum chambers and centrifuges. They have scuba dived and skydived, flown in fighter jets and even reached the summit of Cotopaxi in Ecuador, a peak nearly 6,100 metres high.
Poteet, who flew Air Force fighter jets for nearly two decades and was a Thunderbird, said the regimen was “some of the most challenging training I've ever experienced.”
Although it won't be broadcast live, Polaris Dawn will also ascend to an orbital height not reached by humans since Apollo 17 astronauts more than a half-century ago. A few hours after launch on Tuesday, Dragon will fly to an apogee of 870 miles, passing over a portion of the treacherous Van Allen radiation belts.
The next day, live from orbit, Menon will read a children's book She wrote for her family and the patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Polaris Dawn, in addition to being a research mission, is a charitable effort that aims to raise millions for St. Jude as Inspiration4 Before that.
The fourth day of the mission will also see a live demonstration of a special communications system in Dragon’s trunk, which uses lasers to interact with Starlink satellites as they zoom through space. SpaceX said last month that the broadcast would be worth tuning in to, but did not provide details.
If all goes according to plan, Isaacman, Poteet, Gillis and Menon will splash down at one of seven locations off the Florida coast on Sunday.
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