SpaceX has announced a target date of July 31 for its highly anticipated Polaris Dawn mission. The spaceflight company made the announcement on social media on Wednesday. The five-day Polaris Dawn mission will see four nonprofessional astronauts fly aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to an orbit approximately 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth, significantly higher than any previous Crew Dragon flight.
This mission is a significant step forward for private space exploration, as it will see two Polaris Dawn crew members participate in the first-ever commercial spacewalk. This historic event will utilize specially designed spacesuits and is expected to last a couple of hours. During the spacewalk, the suits’ capabilities, including their movement in microgravity, will be thoroughly tested.
The Polaris Dawn mission is being funded and led by Jared Isaacman, the CEO of payment processing firm Shift4 and an accomplished pilot. Isaacman, who previously flew to low-Earth orbit with three other nonprofessional astronauts on the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, will be joined on this mission by Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel; Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and Anna Menon, another lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.
Polaris Dawn will conduct research aimed at understanding the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. Additionally, the mission will be the first to test Starlink laser-based communications in space. This research will provide valuable data for the development of future space communications systems essential for missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
The launch of Polaris Dawn is scheduled to take place as early as the end of July, utilizing SpaceX’s reliable Falcon 9 rocket to launch the Crew Dragon into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While the July 31 launch date remains the current target, the possibility of a slight delay exists. An update will be shared if any changes occur.
