It’s a new milestone in commercial space exploration. SpaceX launched its Polaris Dawn mission from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Tuesday, September 10, which is set to enable the first private spacewalk in history – floating in space while exiting the spacecraft.
The private mission, which carries a crew of four – a billionaire, a pilot and two Space X employees – is scheduled to last five days. Two of them will go on a 15-minute spacewalk, which will be broadcast live on the third day of the mission. The spacecraft must first venture to an altitude of 1,400 kilometres, the furthest for a crew since the Apollo lunar missions.
“Polaris Dawn Takes Off!”announced Elon Musk’s company on the social network X, to illustrate a photo of the rocket taken at the moment of its takeoff. The takeoff had been postponed several times in the last two weeks, notably due to bad weather conditions.
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More than two years of training
The commander of this mission is American billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has been collaborating with Elon Musk’s company for several years and is partly financing the trip (for an undisclosed amount). One of the main objectives is to test the company’s very first space suits. “I imagine that one day many people or even families will be jumping around on the lunar surface in their SpaceX suits.”Jared Isaacman said at a press conference in August.
The latter already went to space in 2021 aboard another SpaceX orbital mission that he had chartered, Inspiration4, the first to include no professional astronauts.
It is also the first time that SpaceX employees have gone into space: Sarah Gillis is in charge of astronaut training for the company, and Anna Menon worked for NASA before joining SpaceX. They are to become the women who have traveled the furthest from Earth. The fourth passenger is pilot Scott Poteet, a former US Air Force officer and close friend of Jared Isaacman. The four adventurers have been undergoing intensive training for more than two years.
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During the spacewalk, since SpaceX’s Dragon ship is not equipped with an airlock, the entire crew will be exposed to the vacuum of space once the hatch is opened. Two passengers will remain on board, while two others will take turns venturing outside, each for about fifteen minutes. While remaining attached to the capsule, they will perform movements to test the new suits.
