SpaceX launches daring mission with all-civilian crew for first private spacewalk
SpaceX launched its daring Polaris Dawn mission on Tuesday, a multiday orbital expedition carrying a four-member civilian crew for the first spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.
The crew, led by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Iscaacman, is also aiming to fly deeper into space than any other manned mission in more than half a century, reaching a peak altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometres).
"Liftoff of Polaris Dawn!" SpaceX said on X, alongside a photo of the take-off.
The highlight of the mission will be the first spacewalk composed entirely of non-professionals, who are wearing sleek, newly developed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits outfitted with heads-up displays, helmet cameras and an advanced joint mobility system.
Applause broke out across the mission control centre as the Dragon capsule separated successfully from the main engine and the first glimpses of Earth came into view.
"The Polaris Dawn crew is now in Zero-G!" SpaceX wrote on X minutes later, as the crew experienced their first taste of zero-gravity.
On the first day of their mission, the craft will travel so high that it will briefly enter the Van Allen radiation belt, a region teeming with high-energy charged particles that can pose health risks to humans over extended periods.
The mission was delayed several times, initially due to a technical issue with the launch tower and then because of weather constraints.
The Crew Dragon capsule will not dock with the International Space Station, which is why the weather had to be favourable during both the launch and splashdown phase, around six days after liftoff.
Two years' preparation
Isaacman has declined to reveal his total investment in the project, though reports suggest he paid around $200 million for the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission in September 2021, the first all-civilian orbital mission.
Rounding out the team are mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, also a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.
The quartet underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours on simulators apart from skydiving, centrifuge training, scuba diving, and summiting an Ecuadoran volcano.
Polaris Dawn is set to be the first of three missions under the Polaris programme, a collaboration between Isaacman, the founder of tech company Shift4 Payments, and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Also on their to-do list are testing laser-based satellite communication between the spacecraft and Starlink, SpaceX's more than 6,000-strong constellation of internet satellites, in a bid to boost space communication speeds, and conducting 36 scientific experiments.
Among these are tests with contact lenses embedded with microelectronics to continuously monitor changes in eye pressure and shape.
Agence France-Presse
SpaceX launches billionaire to carry out first private spacewalk
10 September 2024
Unlike his previous chartered flight, this time tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost with SpaceX.
A daredevil billionaire rocketed back into space on Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture further than anyone since Nasa’s Apollo Moon missions.
Unlike his previous chartered flight, this time tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost with SpaceX, including the development and testing of new spacesuits to see how they perform in the harsh vacuum.
Mr Isaacman launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida before dawn on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot.
If all goes to plan, it will be the first time private citizens have carried out a spacewalk, although they will not venture away from the capsule.
Considered one of the riskiest parts of spaceflight, spacewalks have been the sole realm of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union opened the hatch in 1965, closely followed by the US. Today, they are routinely done at the International Space Station.
The spacewalk is scheduled for late on Wednesday or Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.
But first the passengers are aiming way beyond the International Space Station – an altitude of 870 miles (1,400km), which would exceed the Earth-lapping record set during Nasa’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon have ventured further.
The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height – filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris – before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half.
Even at a lower 435 miles (700km), the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle astronauts flew.
All four will wear SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurised for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment.
Mr Isaacman and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly leaving the hatch. The will test their white and black-trimmed custom suits by twisting their bodies.
Both will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule or attached support structure that resembles the top of a swimming pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 12ft (3.6m) tethers and no jetpack showboating. Only Nasa’s suits at the space station are equipped with jetpacks, and they are for emergency use only.
Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut flights, this one will end with a splashdown off the Florida coast.
At a pre-flight news conference, Mr Isaacman – chief executive and founder of credit card processing company Shift4 – refused to say how much he invested in the flight.
“Not a chance,” the 41-year-old said.
SpaceX teamed up with Mr Isaacman to pay for spacesuit development and associated costs, said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for Nasa.
“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” he added.
It is the first of three trips that Mr Isaacman bought from Elon Musk two-and-a-half years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021.
Mr Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Spacesuit development took longer than anticipated, delaying this first so-called Polaris Dawn flight until now.
Training was extensive, with Mr Poteet saying it rivalled anything he experienced during his Air Force flying career.
As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Ms Gillis and Ms Menon helped Mr Isaacman and his previous team – as well as Nasa’s professional crews – to prepare for their flights.
Mr Isaacman said before lift-off: “I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the Moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our Solar System.”
Poor weather caused a two-week delay to the launch.
The crew needed favourable forecasts not only for lift-off, but for splashdown days later.
With limited supplies and no ability to reach the space station, they had no choice but to wait for conditions to improve.
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