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This first ever private spacewalk will bring serious style to outer space.
SpaceX’s privately funded Polaris Dawn crewed mission is moving toward a launch sometime this summer. The four-person team, including the mission’s funder, billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman, has completed an acceptance test for SpaceX’s new spacesuit (EVA), which they will wear as they become the first private citizens to walk into orbit.
In addition to Isaacman, the team includes two lead operations engineers at SpaceX, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, serving as mission specialists, and the mission pilot, retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet. Training for their upcoming mission included hands-on work developing SpaceX’s new EVA suit, which recently completed its latest major development milestone test as the crew wore their suits in a vacuum for the first time.
“The Polaris Dawn crew recently completed a series of spacesuit acceptance tests in preparation for the mission’s extravehicular activity,” reads an update on the mission’s website. Wearing their EVA suits in a vacuum for the first time, SpaceX has given SpaceX the opportunity to collect some different data ahead of the crew’s upcoming mission, when they will be wearing the suits in the vacuum of space.
According to the Polaris website, the vacuum environment allowed SpaceX to gather some data on what to expect during an actual EVA:
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“Getting used to how the space suit works in a vacuum;
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collect biometric and spacesuit data to evaluate overall system performance in a flight environment;
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Understanding of the general effects of pressure changes on their body during pressurized operations;
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An overview of the different thermal states expected throughout the spaceway; and
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An elevated metabolic period for the crew to simulate the workload expected during the spacewalk, as well as a reduced activity period to understand the body temperature trend during the operation”
Several photos from the test were posted on Porgram’s Polaris Flickr account, showing SpaceX’s new, albeit familiar, spacesuit design. Polaris Dawn is a follow-up mission to SpaceX’s first private astronaut launch, Inspiration4, also funded by Isaacman, and the first of three possible missions for the Polaris Program. Each will help raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital pediatric cancer research center.
Related: SpaceX unveils new EVA suit for 1st private spacewalk on upcoming Polaris Dawn spaceflight (video)
The first images of SpaceX’s EVA suit, which appear, on the outside, to be a bulkier version of their intravehucliar actitivy (IVA) suit – a pressure suit worn during the launch and landing of a spacecraft, but not designed to operate in the exposed vacuum of space. — revealed on the company’s website May 4.
But new Polaris Dawn images from the recent tests highlight some of the differences between the IVA and EVA suits.
The suit’s helmet, in particular, has received several upgrades, including a new heads-up display for astronauts to see data such as the internal pressure, temperature and humidity of their suit. SpaceX’s EVA kits also feature new insulation materials and joint improvements for increased mobility and temperature control.
Related: Meet the four private Polaris Dawn astronauts SpaceX will launch into orbit this year
Polaris Dawn is expected to last five days, and will involve the crew conducting nearly 40 different science experiments while in space, including testing the new EVA suits and the capabilities of their Crew Dragon spacecraft while exposed to the vacuum.
The Polaris team was targeting no earlier than July 31 to launch its historic mission, according to a July 3 post on X, but that date may be very tentative after a recent incident during the launch of a series of SpaceX satellites Starlink.
Related Stories:
— The Polaris Dawn crew prepares for the world’s 1st private spacewalk with SpaceX
— The failure of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket forces NASA to consider the launch schedule of astronauts for the ISS
— Private SpaceX Polaris Dawn space crew talks about their ambitious mission (exclusive)
The July 11 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 additions to the company’s mega-constellation of satellites ended on the internet, when the second stage suffered a phenomenon that resulted in a catastrophic loss of the entire payload. As a result, all Falcon 9 launches have been suspended, pending the results of investigations by SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The establishment of the Falcon 9 could have implications for NASA’s upcoming missions to the International Space Station (ISS), which were due to launch a cargo mission and a crew mission to the space station in the coming months.
