Washington: SpaceX is preparing to launch a private space mission led by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, marking a major milestone in commercial space exploration. The mission, will send a crew of four on a groundbreaking spacewalk, a first for a privately funded crew.
The mission is part of Isaacman’s broader Polaris Program, which aims to push the boundaries of private space travel. The crew will embark on a five-day journey aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, reaching an altitude higher than any previous commercial flight. One of the mission’s key objectives is to perform a spacewalk, marking the first extravehicular activity by a non-governmental crew.
The mission will span approximately five days in an elliptical orbit, bringing the crew as close as 190 km (118 miles) to Earth and as far as 1,400 km (870 miles). This will be the farthest humans have travelled from Earth since the conclusion of the United States’ Apollo moon program in 1972.
Jared Isaacman, who previously commanded SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission in 2021, will lead the Polaris Dawn crew and joining him are three trained civilian astronauts: Kidd Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Jared said that, “This mission is about continuing to explore new frontiers in space, it’s a big step toward making space accessible to more people and demonstrating what private industry can accomplish.”
The Polaris Dawn mission begins from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, using SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The spacewalk is scheduled for the third day of the mission at an altitude of 700 km and will last approximately 20 minutes. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has no airlock, so the entire cabin will be slowly depressurized. All four astronauts will rely on SpaceX-designed slimmed-down spacesuits for oxygen during the spacewalk.
In addition to the spacewalk, the crew will conduct scientific research, including health experiments on radiation exposure and human physiology in space. Last month’s attempt to launch Polaris Dawn was postponed just hours before lift-off due to a minor helium leak in SpaceX’s ground equipment at the launchpad.
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