Polaris Dawn crew arrives at Cape Canaveral for SpaceX launch into orbit, historic spacewalk
Just before 11:40 a.m. Monday, five Polaris Ghost Squadron jets peeled away from V-formation and swooped above a couple dozen photographers and reporters at NASA's sun-drenched Launch and Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center.
Then the gray, black and white camouflage-patterned Alpha and L-39 Albatros aircraft landed and taxied to stops outside Space Florida's Reusable Launch Vehicle Hangar, alongside the former space shuttle landing strip. There, the four crew members of SpaceX's upcoming Polaris Dawn clambered out of the cockpits to brief the nation on their upcoming, groundbreaking Aug. 26 spacewalk-centric mission.
"Hello! It's a little hot," mission commander Jared Isaacman said, exiting his jet.
SpaceX is targeting 3:38 a.m. Aug. 26 for a late-night launch sending the four future private astronauts into orbit inside a Dragon spacecraft from pad 39A. The Falcon 9 rocket launch window lasts four hours, should delays arise. FLORIDA TODAY's Space Team will provide live coverage starting about two hours before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space.
Polaris Dawn mission features first commercial spacewalk
After reaching the highest orbit flown by a Dragon — 1,400 km, a high-radiation zone — they will descend to a 700-km cruising orbit and attempt the first-ever spacewalk involving commercial astronauts. This will test SpaceX's newly developed EVA spacesuits, which feature heads-up displays, helmet cameras and thermal management textiles.
"It's not lost on us that it might be 10 iterations from now, and a bunch of evolutions in the suit. But someday, somebody could be wearing a version of (it) that might be walking on Mars," Isaacman told media during a SpaceX webcast from the hangar.
"It's a huge honor to have the opportunity to test that out on this flight," Isaacman said.
The Polaris Dawn on-orbit schedule
Day 1: Launch, then pass through the inner regions of Earth's Van Allen radiation belt to 1,400 km above the surface.
Day 2: Prepare for spacewalk, descend to a 700-km cruising orbit.
Day 3: Conduct spacewalk, which will be livestreamed.
Day 4: Test a Starlink laser-based communication system.
Day 5: Prepare for reentry.
Day 6: Reenter Earth's atmosphere and splash down at one of seven sites off the Florida coast.
SpaceX VP: We're pushing frontiers with the private sector
Crew members will also conduct about 40 science experiments. The other crew members: pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew with the Thunderbirds; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX lead space operations engineer who trained the Inspiration4 astronauts; and mission specialist/medical officer Anna Menon, a SpaceX lead space operations engineer who served in mission control during multiple crewed missions.
"First SpaceX spacewalk mission launches in a week. This will be epic," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in a Sunday night tweet.
Isaacman, who founded Shift4, is financing Polaris Dawn much like he did Inspiration4, the September 2021 SpaceX mission that made history by launching an all-civilian crew into orbit for the first time. That three-day spaceflight generated more than $250 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Similarly, Isaacman said Polaris Dawn has already generated millions of dollars for St. Jude.
Asked to reveal a ballpark estimate on how much money he is spending on the Polaris program, Isaacman replied, "Not a chance."
Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX vice president of build and flight reliability, previously logged a 40-year career at NASA. He moderated Monday's Polaris Dawn webcast.
"This pace of development that we get to do at SpaceX is very much like the pace of development that was required back in the early Apollo days. We're getting a chance to do that again, where we're really starting to push frontiers with the private sector and learning new things that we would not be able to learn by staying in the risk-free environment of here on Earth," Gerstenmaier said.
"It's time to go out, and it's time to explore. It's time to do these big things and move forward," he said.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Jared Isaacman and Polaris Dawn prepping for SpaceX launch, spacewalk
