SpaceX recently launched its most recent mission, a daring and dangerous journey into Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts by a four-person civilian crew that also aims to perform the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
At 5:23 a.m. ET, the Polaris Dawn mission was launched.
The event was broadcast live on SpaceX’s X social media platform, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acquired in 2022. X was formerly known as Twitter.
Ground controllers, led by SpaceX launch director Frank Messina, encouraged the Polaris Dawn crew, which included the first SpaceX employees to travel to space, as the capsule approached Earth’s orbit.
“Remember that your bravery illuminates the way for upcoming adventurers as you direct your gaze towards the North Star. We have faith in your abilities, bravery, and cooperation to complete the upcoming mission,” they declared. “Remember that the whole team behind us is following you every step of the way, observing, encouraging, and shouting you on as you enter space. Hugs are coming from the ground to you.
The Polaris Dawn crew’s attempts to lift off were impeded by multiple weather delays in late August and early Tuesday morning, which led to this launch.
The fact that SpaceX needed to guarantee calm seas and winds when the crew returns from a five-day space mission, in addition to clear weather for the mission to take off, further complicated the launch prospects. It might be important to time their return. The Polaris Dawn mission will only have enough oxygen for five or six days in space due to the drain that conducting a spacewalk will cause on oxygen supplies.
The ride to orbit
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket erupted into a blinding blaze and deafening blast across the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as the countdown clock reached zero.
As the rocket broke free from Earth’s gravity, the crew rode atop it, strapped inside an igloo-shaped SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that is roughly 13 feet (4 meters) across at its base.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which is located at the bottom, used up the majority of its fuel after firing for two and a half minutes. At that moment, the upper section of the rocket fired up its engine and continued to propel the Crew Dragon spacecraft toward faster speeds, causing the first stage to separate from the second stage.
In the meantime, the Falcon 9’s first stage made its way back to Earth and landed on a floating platform so that it could be repaired and utilized on more missions in the future. That is a hallmark action of SpaceX, and the company claims it lowers the cost of rocket launches.
The Falcon 9 rocket reached “orbital velocity,” or more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,358 kilometers per hour), in order to enter Earth’s orbit. The Crew Dragon broke away once it reached the desired speed and spent the rest of the mission using only its onboard thrusters to navigate the vacuum of space.
First commercial spacewalk attempt
SpaceX and Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments, a financial technology company, came up with the idea for Polaris Dawn. Isaacman made his first space flight attempt with the Inspiration4 mission in September 2021.
But this isn’t a joyride, either.
On this mission, Isaacman and his crewmates—SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, as well as close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet—hope to achieve a number of superlatives.
First, the SpaceX capsule wants to take the crew into orbit around the Earth at altitudes never before achieved by space travel, surpassing the record set by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966, which traveled 853 miles (1,373 kilometers). Polaris Dawn would surpass that record by roughly twenty miles (32 kilometers) if it is successful.
Additionally, the Polaris Dawn spacecraft would be the highest human flight since NASA’s Apollo program, which concluded in 1972 and sent 24 astronauts, all of whom traveled a quarter of a million miles to the moon instead of coming to a stop in Earth’s orbit.
Additionally, Polaris Dawn might be the furthest into space any woman has ever traveled.
Day three of this mission will begin with a historic spacewalk attempt by the civilian crew while they are orbiting Earth at a lower altitude of about 435 miles (700 kilometers).
The mission will be dangerous because it will put the interior of the Crew Dragon and all four crew members in the space vacuum. Due to pressure variations, it could be challenging to relock the car’s hatch in such a circumstance. Additionally, although SpaceX claims to have taken precautions to avoid it, exposure to the vacuum may cause toxins to be released from hardware when the cabin is repressurized.
