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The Polaris Dawn crew (from left): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis.Image Credits:SpaceX
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off in the early hours of Tuesday sunrise carrying a gang that will attempt the first commercial-grade spacewalk and travel higher than any crewed deputation in 50 years .
The Polaris Dawn mission lifted off from NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:23 a.m. Eastern Standard Time after several delay due to inclement weather condition . Near the end of the first day of the mission , the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule ’s field will attain a high point of 1,400 kilometers ( 870 sea mile ) . This will be the highest altitude human have move around since the Apollo 17 mission to the moonshine in 1972 , and three times high-pitched than the International Space Station .
The four - mortal crowd will be blasting through the high - energy Van Allen whang , where radiation is far in high spirits than at lower altitudes . During that phase of the mission , they ’ll be comport research to better infer the effects of radiation therapy on the human body .
“ We stand up to learn quite a bit from [ that environment ] in terms of human health science and research , ” mission leader Jared Isaacmansaid in a news group discussion last month . “If we get to Mars someday , we ’d fuck to be able to come back and be healthy enough to tell people about it , so I imagine that it ’s worthwhile to get some exposure in that environment . ”
The crew includes billionaire entrepreneur Isaacman , who founded Shift4 Payments ; military mission pilot Scott “ Kidd ” Poteet , a crawl in U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel ; and two SpaceX employee , mission specialist Sarah Gillis , an engineer and astronaut trainer , and delegacy specialist Anna Menon , a aesculapian music director who also runs SpaceX ’s mission control during its flights .
On Clarence Day three of the five - sidereal day foreign mission , the work party will lower the Dragon ’s altitude to around 700 kilometers ( 435 miles ) . At that full stop , they ’ll attempt the first spacewalk not involving regime astronauts . All four will don spacesuits and start the hatch of the space vehicle , though only two crew members , Isaacman and Gillis , will go out the Dragon . They ’ll take turn stake into the vacuum of place for around 15 to 20 mo while tether to the space capsule by umbilical cords .
The crew will be wear new extravehicular activity suit design by SpaceX , and these suit will be put to the mental test for the first time . SpaceX also stick in a serial publication of modifications to Dragon , like handholds around the crosshatch , as mobility aids for the spacewalk . These handhold will be crucial because Isaacman and Gillis are n’t plan on doing any free - float , but will hold onto the Dragon at all stop through the walk . The full operation , from give vent the Dragon to depressurization , will take about two hour .
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The suits are especially exciting give SpaceX ’s long - term ambitions to show a human colony on Mars , as hundreds or chiliad of people could wear interchangeable courting in the time to come .
This foreign mission is a partnership between Isaacman and SpaceX. Neither party has ever disclosed the toll of the flight of stairs , nor how much Isaacman is paying to fly , but it offers a welcome chance for SpaceX to test its technology in celestial orbit . Besides the suits , the bunch will also test communications between the Dragon and SpaceX ’s Starlink constellation , which would enable in - ejection seat Wi - Fi , a critical piece of tech that could enable reliable crew communications on succeeding missions to the synodic month or Mars .
This will be the first of three missions in Isaacman ’s Polaris political platform . The third is specify to be the first crew launching of SpaceX ’s Starship . He first traveled to distance three year ago on the Inspiration4 private spaceman delegacy that also launched with SpaceX.
short after lift - off , Isaacman expressed his thanks to the company : “ We would n’t be on this journeying without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX , ” he allege .
After five days in electron orbit , the work party will return to Earth and slosh down off either coast of Florida .
