The Polaris Dawn project, which is about to be launched by SpaceX, will be the first human spacewalk ever. It will be a first in history. A Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX will carry the mission into space on Tuesday, August 27, at 3:38 AM ET. The four-person team, led by millionaire Jared Isaacman, will go farther into space than any person has since the Apollo program. They will get as high as 870 miles above Earth.
The Polaris Dawn group is made up of a variety of ordinary people. CEO of Shift4 Jared Isaacman will lead the mission, and former Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet will be in charge of flying it. Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both engineers at SpaceX, will be in charge of missions. Menon will also be the medical officer. The mission is set to last about five days, during which time the team will do a number of ground-breaking tasks, such as a spacewalk 435 miles above Earth.
Two crew members will get out of the SpaceX Dragon ship for the spacewalk, which is one of the mission’s main goals. The Dragon ship doesn’t have an airlock, so when the hatch is opened, the whole crew will be exposed to the vacuum of space. This will make the event even more difficult. SpaceX has made new Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuits that have been tested a lot on the ground to make sure they are safe for the crew. According to Anna Menon, the suits are ready for the task because they have been through a lot of tests under high pressure.
As part of the spacewalk, Polaris Dawn will also test SpaceX’s Starlink laser-based transmission system for the first time in space. The project will also gather information that will help researchers learn more about how being in space affects people’s health. This will help future space travel.
This mission is the first of three planned Polaris spaceflights. It is a big step forward for private space research. After years of planning, Polaris Dawn is finally ready to push the limits of commercial space travel. This will create new opportunities for people to explore space in the future.