SpaceX announced Monday that it was postponing by at least 24 hours the first private space mission involving an extravehicular activity, which was due to take off from Florida on Tuesday, due to a “helium leak.”
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This unprecedented flight will allow private passengers to leave their module for the first time and move around in space, protected only by their spacesuit.
But “SpaceX teams are taking a closer look at a helium leak on the ground,” Elon Musk’s company wrote on X.
Helium is a non-flammable gas, commonly used to pressurize rocket fuels.
The mission, named Polaris Dawn, has been postponed by 24 hours, to 3:38 a.m. Wednesday local time in Florida (7:38 a.m. GMT). The launch could be postponed again, either later Wednesday or Thursday, same time, SpaceX warned.
Four people are to be lucky enough to be the first private travelers to temporarily leave their spacecraft.
Two of the future passengers are SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. They will be accompanied by the commander and American billionaire Jared Isaacman and a pilot, Scott Poteet, who is close to the businessman.
Mr. Isaacman previously flew to space in 2021 aboard another SpaceX mission he chartered, Inspiration4, for which he was trained by Mr.me Gillis.
Unprecedented mission
The four adventurers underwent intensive training for this five-day mission.
It has three main objectives, in addition to the forty or so experiments carried out on board.
First, reach an altitude of 1,400 km, the furthest distance for a crew since the Apollo lunar missions. For comparison, the International Space Station (ISS) operates at an altitude of about 400 km.
A laser communication test is also planned between the ship and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
But above all, once in a lower orbit, the famous spacewalk must be broadcast live.
The ship – the capsule Dragon – not being equipped with an airlock, the entire crew will be exposed to the vacuum of space when its hatch is opened. Two passengers will remain on board, while two others will each venture outside in turn.
After this first mission of the Polaris program, a second, similar one, is planned. A third must, for its part, be the first crewed flight of the mega-rocket Starship of SpaceX currently in development, a heavy launcher intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.
