A billionaire, a pilot and two SpaceX employees took off from Florida on Tuesday for an ambitious mission that is set to mark a new milestone in commercial space exploration, with the first private spacewalk in history.
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A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off early in the morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, propelling into orbit the Dragon capsule that will carry passengers on the mission, called Polaris Dawn.
“Congratulations to the SpaceX teams and the Polaris crew!” exclaimed Elon Musk, the head of the space company, on X.
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The commander of the five-day mission is American billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has been working with SpaceX for several years and is partly financing the trip — an undisclosed amount.
One of the main goals is to test the company’s first-ever spacesuits, white and futuristic-looking, during a brief spacewalk outside the capsule.
The ship must first venture to an altitude of 1,400 km, the furthest for a crew since the Apollo lunar missions.
At more than three times the altitude of the International Space Station, the environment is completely different in terms of radiation and micrometeorites, Jared Isaacman explained at a press conference last month.
“We will stay there as short a time as possible, just long enough to collect the data we want,” including the effect on the human body and the vessel, he said.
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The two SpaceX employees on board, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, would become the women who have traveled furthest from Earth. They are the first two employees of the company to go into space.
The fourth passenger is pilot Scott Poteet, a former US Air Force pilot and close friend of Jared Isaacman.
Space dance
The spacewalk, the first by civilians who are not professional astronauts, will next be attempted at 0623 GMT on Thursday at a lower orbit, according to SpaceX. It is expected to be broadcast live.
Since SpaceX’s Dragon ship doesn’t have an airlock, the entire crew will be exposed to the vacuum of space once the hatch is opened. Two passengers will stay on board, while two others will take turns venturing outside, each for about 15 minutes.
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While remaining attached to the capsule, they will perform movements to test the new suits, developed to withstand extreme temperatures and equipped with a camera.
“It will feel a little like dancing,” explained Jared Isaacman.
“I imagine that one day, many people or even families will be jumping around on the lunar surface in their SpaceX suits,” he added. “It’s a huge honor to have the opportunity to test them on this flight.”
Around thirty experiments are also planned on board, such as the contact lens test measuring changes in intraocular pressure.
A laser communication test is finally scheduled between the ship and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
Intensive training
The four adventurers have undergone intensive training for over two years: some 2,000 hours in a simulator, centrifuge sessions (rapid rotation), scuba diving, parachute jumping and even survival training in Ecuador…
Jared Isaacman, the head of financial firm Shift4, already went to space in 2021 aboard another SpaceX orbital mission he chartered, Inspiration4, the first to include no professional astronauts.
“The fact that the private sector is investing capital, thus accelerating the development of commercial space, is a very good thing,” he argued in August.
Polaris Dawn inaugurates the Polaris program, announced with great fanfare two and a half years ago and which is to include three missions in total.
After a second mission similar to the one currently underway, the third should be the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, currently in development and intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.
