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SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission — a daring multi-day orbital expedition that will include the first-ever private spacewalk — is set to launch today.
The four-person crew, led by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, aims to go deeper into space than any manned mission in more than half a century, reaching a maximum altitude of 1,400 km.
"SpaceX plans to launch the Falcon 9 Polaris Dawn into low Earth orbit on Tuesday, September 10, at 03:38 GMT (10:38 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida," it said. in a SpaceX announcement.
There are two additional launch opportunities within four hours. SpaceX will live stream the launch on its website.
The culmination of the mission was planned to be the first spacewalk made up entirely of non-professional astronauts, who would wear sleek, newly designed SpaceX suits equipped with surveillance displays, helmet-mounted cameras and an advanced mobility system.
On the first day of its mission, the spacecraft will rise so high that it will briefly enter the Van Allen radiation belt, an area where there are many high-energy charged particles that could pose a long-term health risk to humans. time.
The mission was delayed several times, first due to a technical problem with the launch tower and then due to weather restrictions.
The Crew Dragon capsule will not dock with the International Space Station, so the weather must be favorable both at launch and during the descent phase, about six days after launch.
Long preparation
Isaacman declined to disclose his total investment in the project, but is believed to have paid about $200 million for the first all-civilian SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission in September 2021.
The team also consisted of mission pilot Scott Pott, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and Anna Menon, also lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.
The quartet went through more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours in simulators as well as skydiving, centrifuge training, scuba diving and climbing an Ecuadorian volcano.
Polaris Dawn will be the first of three missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman, founder of technology company Shift4 Payments, and SpaceX.
Their to-do list also includes testing laser satellite communications between the spacecraft and Starlink, SpaceX's constellation of more than 6,000 Internet satellites, in an effort to increase the speed of space communications, as well as conducting 36 science experiments.
Among these are contact lens tests embedded with microelectronics to continuously monitor changes in eye pressure and shape. | BGNES
