If you missed the pre-dawn launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission from Florida, you can rewatch it and see photos from the launch here.
SpaceX sends Polaris Dawn crew on potentially dangerous mission
Four private astronauts have launched on the Polaris Dawn mission with the plan to ascend three times higher than the International Space Station.
SpaceX’s latest bold mission has launched four commercial astronauts to altitudes no human has reached since the end of NASA’s Apollo moon missions 50 years ago.
The crew of Polaris Dawn was finally able to depart early Tuesday for the thrice-delayed spaceflight that would see them attempt by Thursday to become the first non-governmental astronauts to perform a spacewalk. In the early morning hours, billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew boarded a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:23 a.m. EDT.
The private astronauts, who spent three weeks in quarantine while awaiting launch, face five days in orbit testing SpaceX technology that could be critical to future space exploration.
If you missed the launch, you can rewatch the start of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission here.
SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn with Falcon 9
The highly anticipated launch was preceded by a delay of about two weeks as SpaceX waited for the ideal time to plan a launch opportunity.
The spacecraft will rise to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface and then descend into a cruising orbit at an altitude of about 700 kilometers above the Earth.
That initial altitude is higher than any human has ever reached since the end of NASA’s Apollo lunar program in the 1970s, and more than three times higher than the International Space Station. The ascent will also take the crew through the dangerous inner regions of Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, which astronauts will need to traverse on future missions to the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX will track the crew’s journey on X and its website.
SpaceX launch: Polaris Dawn crew aims to make history with civilian spacewalk
Photos show historic manned launch from Florida
In the early morning hours, spectators gathered all along the Florida coast to watch the launch of the daring mission from Launch Complex 39A on NASA’s Cape Canaveral site.
After Tuesday’s launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket was able to separate from the spacecraft within 10 minutes, return to Earth and land in the Atlantic Ocean aboard a drone ship as planned. At 5:40 a.m., the Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9’s upper stage and began using its own engines to power up, SpaceX said on social media site X.
What is the Polaris Dawn mission?
Polaris Dawn is the first of three manned space flights as part of the Polaris program, which will test SpaceX’s technologies needed to send humans deep into space.
The launch has been years in the making and was most recently canceled due to poor weather conditions predicted for the crew’s return to Earth. Because Dragon will not dock with the International Space Station, its crew will rely entirely on the oxygen and supplies they carried aboard the spacecraft, but these will only last for about a week, Isaacman previously explained on social media site X.
For this reason, SpaceX has spent the past few days waiting for better weather conditions off the coast of Florida, where the crew will perform a water landing on the sixth day of their mission.
Isaacman, who co-funded the mission with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is the only member of the Polaris Dawn crew who has been in space before. The billionaire founder of internet company Shift4 Payments is mission commander of a crew that includes pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who also serves as medical officer.
The crew will spend five days in orbit, testing space technologies on behalf of SpaceX that could prove critical as NASA and other space agencies target destinations such as Mars.
On the third day of the mission, the crew will also attempt to become the first private citizen to perform a spacewalk by opening the Dragon’s hatch and exposing themselves to the vacuum of space. This daring maneuver has previously only been performed by government astronauts and is usually performed in spacecraft with airlocks.
Because Dragon does not have an airlock, the entire spacecraft must be depressurized when the hatch is opened, exposing the entire crew to the vacuum of space. All four astronauts will wear EVA suits developed by SpaceX that receive oxygen via tethers, which they will test on behalf of the company.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
