by Facing a frustrating stretch of bad weather locally and offshore, SpaceX was focused on Monday another attempt launch a privately funded mission — Polaris Dawn — aimed at setting a post-Apollo altitude record and staging a first non-governmental commercial spacewalk.
Assuming final clearance to go ahead, billionaire commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, planned to strap into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule immediately after 1 a.m. EDT Tuesday to await liftoff from pad 39A at Kennedy Space. Center at 3:38am
Forecasters predicted a 60% chance that the local weather along Florida’s Space Coast would be uneventful. More troubling, perhaps, was the prospect of the splash zones off the coast where the team will have to land at the end of their five-day mission.
Unlike Crew Dragon missions to the International Space Station where astronauts can stay out of inclement weather, the Polaris Dawn crew will have no such safe haven and cannot remain in orbit much longer than the intended mission duration.
Still, Isaacman was encouraged, saying on a social media platform Sunday night, “this is a big improvement over the last two weeks. We’re getting closer to getting this mission into orbit.”
The flight is the second SpaceX trip to low-Earth orbit chartered by Isaacman, who founded what has become one of the nation’s largest credit card transaction processors at 16 years. In 2021, he funded and commanded the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian commercial flight into orbit.
Mission Polaris Dawn It is the first of three more SpaceX flights that Isaacman is funding in conjunction with Musk and the first ever with non-governmental, civilian spaceflights.
The launch was originally planned for August 26, but the flight was delayed 24 hours to complete routine pre-flight processing. Another slip was ordered 24 hours later after engineers discovered a leak in a launch umbilical that delivers helium to the booster to push propellants to the rocket’s engines.
But all systems seemed to “go” by the afternoon of August 27, and good sailing weather was expected along Florida’s Space Coast. Those hopes were dashed after a late night weather review. The flight began to slide day by day then waiting for the weather to improve at the end of the mission.
“Sometimes, the most difficult journeys require the most patience, and we are ready to wait for the right moment,” Isaacman said at the time. “We know many have traveled to see the launch, and we appreciate your support.”
The team hopes to achieve one of the mission’s main objectives within a few hours of launch, reaching an orbit with a high point, or apogee, of 870 miles and a low point, or perigee, of 118 miles. In contrast, the International Space Station flies in a circular orbit at an altitude of about 260 miles.
At the high point of the Crew Dragon’s elliptical orbit, Isaacman and company will be further from Earth than any piloted spacecraft since the end of the Apollo moon program.
The Crew Dragon will only spend about 10 hours in that highly elliptical orbit. After that, the ship’s thrusters will fire again to lower the apogee to 435 miles.
The second major objective of the mission – the first non-governmental spacewalk – is planned for the Day 3 flight when Isaacman and Gillis, attached to the Crew Dragon by umbilicals and safety strings, will take turns floating in open space directly above the open hatch of the Crew Dragon.
As the ship does not have an airlock, her cabin will be ventilated to a vacuum before the hatch is opened. Poteet and Menon will also be wearing SpaceX-designed pressure suits, and while they won’t be able to stick their helmeted heads outside, they’ll be counted among the world’s astronauts.
The main goals of the demonstration are to test the joints, mobility and comfort of the new suit to help SpaceX engineers develop a lower-cost space suit for the large number of people SpaceX says will one day venture to the moon and Mars. .
The crew also plans to test a high-speed laser communication system and will conduct a battery of biomedical experiments during the five-day flight to help researchers from more than 30 institutions learn more about the effects of weight loss.
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