First private spacewalk | SpaceX mission set to launch Wednesday after delay

A SpaceX rocket that will carry a billionaire, a pilot and two employees on a groundbreaking space mission that includes the first private spacewalk in history is scheduled to blast off from Florida on Wednesday after a delay due to a leak.

The launch of the Polaris Dawn mission was postponed for 24 hours after a “helium leak” was detected Monday on a fuel line that powers the rocket. Helium, which is not a flammable gas, is often used in propulsion systems.

The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon capsule that carries the crew, is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:38 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

“All systems are ready for launch tomorrow,” SpaceX said Tuesday on X.

The commander of this five-day mission is American billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has been working with Elon Musk’s company for several years.

The trip is intended to test SpaceX’s very first spacesuits, which are white and have a futuristic look.

The spacewalk, which promises to be spectacular, is to be broadcast live on the third day of the mission.

The spacecraft must also venture to an altitude of 1,400 km, the furthest for a crew since the Apollo lunar missions.

“It’s going to be a really cool mission,” Musk promised.

This is the first time that SpaceX employees will go to space: Sarah Gillis is in charge of astronaut training there and Anna Menon worked for NASA before joining SpaceX.

“I’ve spent years trying to get into the shoes of astronauts in space, I’m really looking forward to experiencing it for myself,” she said.

The fourth person on board is pilot Scott Poteet, a former U.S. Air Force veteran and close friend of Jared Isaacman.

The four adventurers have undergone intensive training for over two years: some 2,000 hours in a simulator, centrifuge sessions (rapid rotation), scuba diving, parachute jumping and even survival training in Ecuador…

Women’s record

Polaris represents a new milestone for commercial space exploration.

Jared Isaacman, 41, the head of financial firm Shift4, already went to space in 2021 aboard another SpaceX orbital mission he chartered, Inspiration4, the first in history to include no professional astronauts.

He did not disclose how much he has invested in Polaris. SpaceX’s ambitious program is to include three missions, including the first crewed flight of the Starship mega-rocket, which is currently under development and is intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.

“The idea is to develop and test new technologies and maneuvers to advance SpaceX’s bold vision of enabling humanity to travel among the stars,” he said.

On the first day, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon are to become the women who have traveled the furthest from Earth.

At 1,400 km away – more than three times the distance from the International Space Station – the environment is completely different in terms of radiation and micrometeorites, Isaacman explained.

“We will stay there as short a time as possible, just long enough to collect the data we want,” including on the effect on the human body and the vessel, he said.

Then, at a lower orbit, the spacewalk will take place, the first carried out by civilians who are not professional astronauts.

Since the ship does not have an airlock, the entire crew will be exposed to the vacuum of space once its hatch is opened. Two passengers will remain on board and two others will take turns venturing outside, each for about 15 minutes.

While remaining attached to the capsule, they will perform movements to test their new suits, equipped with a camera.

Nearly forty experiments are planned, including a test of laser communication between the ship and Space X’s Starlink satellites.