Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn spacecraft on Tuesday launched the first-ever crew for ‘all-civilian’ spacewalk. The first commercial spaceflight mission with a spacewalk carries billionaire Jared Isaacman, along with three others, for the all-civilian spacewalk. It lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today at after 5:23 a.m. EDT (2:54 PM IST) from historic Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
“Liftoff of Polaris Dawn!” SpaceX said in a post on X. The mission has been delayed since August, first over a helium leak and then weather played spoilsport. Polaris Programme was launched by billionaire Jared Isaacman — the commander of the first “all-civilian” space mission Inspiration4, launched in 2021. Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions under the programme.
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Along with Isaacman, the mission launched pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, mission specialist Sarah Gillis, and medical officer Anna Menon. The mission will be free-flying and will go to a “very high altitude that humans haven’t gone to in 50-plus years,” Isaacman said earlier. Only Apollo was higher.
During the mission, the teams will conduct research to better understand the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. “While on-orbit, the Polaris Dawn crew will conduct 36 research and science experiments from 31 partner institutions to expand our knowledge of humans adapting, living, and working in space,” Polaris Dawn said in a post on X.
The crew will also “be the first crew to test Starlink laser-based communications in space”. They will provide valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.