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Key Takeaways
- After previous delays, SpaceX is targeting early Tuesday morning to launch Polaris Dawn, the first flight in its Polaris series of missions.
- The four-person crew includes two SpaceX employees, a pilot, and the CEO of a payments platform who previously flew to space as commander of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 in 2021.
- The crew is scheduled to spend up to five days in orbit performing dozens of experiments to learn more about human health in space, along with tests of Starlink communications equipment.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX said that it is targeting early Tuesday morning for the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission, a research expedition with four crew members that is scheduled to include the first spacewalk by commercial astronauts.
The company said it sees three opportunities for a launch between about 3:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET, with similar windows available Wednesday if a Tuesday launch is delayed.
The Polaris launch already has been delayed multiple times in recent weeks over technical and weather issues, and SpaceX said that “conditions at the possible splashdown sites for Dragon’s return to Earth remain a watch item.”
What Are the Goals of Polaris?
The first of three planned flights in the Polaris program is set to be manned by two SpaceX Mission Specialists, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who also will serve as Medical Officer; Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet; and Mission Commander and Shift4 Payments (FOUR) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jared Isaacman, who previously flew to space as commander of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 in 2021.
SpaceX said the spacecraft will have equipment to conduct 36 experiments for data on human health while in space, along with tests of Starlink communications equipment during the crew’s up to five days in orbit. The trip also will include the first spacewalk by commercial astronauts, putting the space suits designed by SpaceX to the test in the vacuum of space.
The flight is also set to travel to the highest orbit above Earth since NASA’s Apollo program, which first put astronauts on the moon in 1969. The company said a livestream of the launch will be viewable on X and its website, starting about three-and-a-half hours ahead of the planned launch time.