A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon Resilience capsule carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission.
Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission launched from Florida on Tuesday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the “Sustainability” Dragon capsule.
This is the first of three missions that billionaire and Shift4 founder Jared Isaacman has purchased from SpaceX for a 2022 human spaceflight project known as the Polaris Program.
The multi-day trip does not go to a destination like the International Space Station, but is instead a free-flying mission that follows orbits where the crew hopes to get away from Earth.
As the centerpiece of the mission, the crew will attempt the first SpaceX spacewalk. Extravehicular activities, or EVAs, have been a regular part of government astronaut missions, but no private enterprise has attempted an EVA before. The EVA is expected to last two hours from start to finish.
In addition to spacewalks, Polaris Dawn plans to conduct about 40 scientific and research experiments during the mission.
Due to inclement weather and helium leaks, the launch had been delayed multiple times over the past few weeks.
Isaacman leads the mission, leading a four-person crew that includes the first two SpaceX employees to fly into space, Anna Menon and Sara Gillis. This is Isaacman’s second time in orbit, leading the historic Inspiration4 flight in 2021.
Polaris Dawn represents SpaceX’s 14th crewed mission to date and fifth personal human spaceflight.
