Polaris Dawn: The world’s first private spacewalk mission could launch next week

Polaris Dawn could finally launch next week

The Polaris Dawn team confirmed the August 26 launch date via a post on X earlier this month, solidifying plans after previous delays.

The mission, originally scheduled for 2022, was postponed multiple times due to the development of new spacesuits and a specialized handrail for the spacewalk.

Polaris Dawn will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will send four crew members to low Earth orbit (LEO). While they are not professional astronauts, they have been training for years before the launch.

Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman will be the mission commander, while retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet will be the pilot. They will be joined by mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who work as SpaceX engineers.

Isaacman is the billionaire behind SpaceX’s first “all-civilian” space mission, Inspiration4. Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned Polaris program missions. These will include another orbital space flight aboard Crew Dragon and the first crewed launch of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket.

“The Polaris Program is an important step in advancing human space exploration while helping to solve problems through innovative technology here on Earth,” Isaacman explained in a statement announcing the Polaris program in February 2022. 

Polaris Dawn: A record-breaking mission

Polaris Dawn is set to break multiple records, including a flight to a record-high orbital altitude of 435 miles (700 kilometers). The crew will not dock with the International Space Station (ISS) but will remain in LEO for several days.

To date, government space agencies have carried out every spacewalk. The vast majority of these have taken place outside the ISS. They were performed by trained astronauts from NASA, Roscosmos, The European Space Agency, and Japan’s JAXA. 

The Polaris Dawn team aims to finally break the mold by carrying out the first private spacewalk. The team will perform the first private spacewalk and fly at a record-high orbital altitude of 435 miles (700 kilometers).

Though Polaris Dawn is a private mission, the team will perform important science. They will be the first to test SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network for laser-based communications in space. The crew members will also act as test subjects, flying at a high enough orbital altitude to fly through the radioactive Van Allen belt. 

Passing through the Van Allen radiation belt 

“On Polaris Dawn, we endeavor to achieve the highest Earth orbit ever flown,” Isaacman said in his 2022 statement. 

The standing record is held by NASA’s Gemini 11 astronauts, Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon, in 1966. During that mission, they flew to an orbit of 853 miles above Earth. The Apollo missions flew further from Earth but were not orbital missions.

Before it reaches the highest Earth orbit ever flown, two Polaris Dawn crew members will attempt the first commercial extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk, in history. SpaceX’s Dragon capsule doesn’t feature an airlock, so the mission’s other two members must also suit up before the entire cabin is depressurized for the spacewalk. The crew will wear specially designed, pressurized SpaceX spacesuits.

After the spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn mission will fly through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt, which comprised of highly energetic charged particles from the Sun. 

As such, one of the mission’s main objectives will be to collect data on the effects of space radiation on the human body. This data will help to determine whether extra radiation protection is needed for future space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Polaris Dawn could help “make life multiplanetary”

The Polaris program will also help to fund St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Ahead of next week’s mission, the team flew into the launch site yesterday, August 19, aboard a small squadron of stunt jets owned by Isaacman.  

At a press conference at the site, Isaacman said, “Every one of these missions will be filled with a number of objectives that are meant to accelerate SpaceX’s vision to make life multi-planetary, but you can always count on—just as it is with this mission—that we will use every bit of the time available for science and research, as well as supporting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.”

Isaacman also spoke of the team’s intense training during the mission’s lead-up. They have gone mountain climbing, skydiving, scuba diving, and have performed high-G jet flights. The Polaris Dawn team also logged roughly 2,000 hours of simulator training over the past two years.

Poteet, who flew fighter jets in the US Air Force for 20 years, added that it “has been some of the most challenging training that I’ve ever experienced.” 

The Polaris Dawn mission will be SpaceX’s first crewed launch since Falcon 9 was temporarily grounded last month following an icing-related malfunction in the second stage’s engine.

If successful, next week’s launch will mark a historic milestone in private spaceflight, paving the way for future missions and the eventual crewed launch of SpaceX’s Starship.