Four civilians are now on their way to "a bold and risky trek" through the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts on a mission that will take them higher than any humans have flown since the Apollo moonshot program ended more than 50 years ago.
Polaris Dawn lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A — home to Apollo's Saturn V rocket — at 05:23 Eastern on Tuesday. The first stage was successfully recovered aboard a landing barge for re-use, and the Crew Dragon capsule was then placed into its proper orbit by the disposable second stage.
Two of the crew — mission commander/billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer/newly-minted astronaut Sarah Gillis — will also perform the first-ever private spacewalks. Mission pilot Scott Poteet (US Air Force, ret.) and medical officer/SpaceX engineer Anna Menon will still have to suit up, even though they won't be going on any spacewalks. The Crew Dragon doesn't have an airlock, so the entire ship will have to be depressurized.
The spacewalks aren't just for show.
"It'll look like we're doing a little bit of a dance. And what that is is, we're going through a series of test matrix on the suit," Isaacman explained. "The idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about the suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions."
Future versions of the SpaceX suit will presumably be used on the company's manned Mars missions, which company founder and CEO Elon Musk said over the weekend he hopes will begin during the 2028 launch window.
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CNN reported that "the SpaceX capsule aims to carry the crew to record-setting heights for an orbit around Earth, surpassing the milestone set by NASA’s 1966 Gemini 11 mission, which reached 853 miles (1,373 kilometers). If successful, Polaris Dawn would beat that record by about 20 miles (32 kilometers)."
Again, this is not just for show. Polaris Dawn will study the effects of Van Allen Belt radiation on the crew.
The launch, just like any successful space launch, was breathtaking.
The Polaris Dawn Live launch was…OUT OF THIS WORLD!
— miha schwartzenberg (@mihaschw) September 10, 2024
Furthest from Earth that humans have been in over half a century-with one tiny exception that I am so proud of-my man, Felix Baumgartner, went up there at 120k feet(39 km)and then skydived his way back faster than the speed of… pic.twitter.com/lwV1EAKcF0
For what it's worth, Menon's husband, Anil Menon, is a Lt. Col. in the US Air Force, an emergency medicine physician, and a NASA astronaut. There are Sierra-Hotel levels of the right stuff in the Menon family.
Originally scheduled for Aug. 27, the Polaris Dawn launch was delayed several times: first, due to the FAA grounding of the Falcon 9 fleet after a second-stage failure during a Starlink satellite launch; then to check out a small helium leak that turned out to be no big deal; and finally for the weather. The crew needs near-perfect weather for the return trip and — surprise! — Florida during storm season wasn't cooperating.
Godspeed to a successful flight and a safe return, Polaris Dawn.
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