Faced with a frustrating series of poor local and offshore weather conditions, SpaceX prepared Monday for another attempt launch a privately funded mission — Polar Dawn — aimed at setting a post-Apollo altitude record and organizing the first non-governmental commercial spacewalk.
Assuming final approval is given, billionaire commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, plan to strap into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule just after 1 a.m. ET Tuesday to await liftoff from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 3:38 a.m.
SpaceX
Meteorologists estimated a 60 percent chance of poor local weather along Florida’s Space Coast. Perhaps more worrisome, the forecast was marginal for the splashdown areas offshore where the crew will land at the end of its five-day mission.
Unlike Crew Dragon missions to the International Space Station where astronauts can wait out bad weather conditions before splashdown, the Polaris Dawn crew will have no such refuge and will not be able to remain in orbit much beyond the planned duration of the mission.
Still, Isaacman was encouraged, saying on social media Sunday night: “This is a big improvement over the last two weeks. We are getting closer to getting this mission into orbit.”
This is the second SpaceX flight to low Earth orbit chartered by Isaacman, who at 16 founded what became one of the nation’s leading credit card transaction processors. In 2021, he funded and commanded the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian commercial flight to orbit.
SpaceX
The Polaris Dawn Mission It is the first of three other SpaceX flights funded by Isaacman in cooperation with Musk and the first to feature civilian, non-governmental spacewalks.
The launch was originally scheduled for August 26, but the flight was delayed 24 hours to complete normal preparations. Another 24-hour delay was then requested after engineers discovered a leak in the launch pad’s umbilical cord that feeds helium propellant to power the rocket’s engines.
But all systems appeared operational by the afternoon of Aug. 27, with good weather conditions for the launch along Florida’s Space Coast. These hopes were dashed after a night weather review. The flight then began to slide day by day while waiting for an improvement in the end-of-mission weather.
“Sometimes the most difficult journeys require the most patience, and we are willing to wait for the right moment,” Isaacman said at the time. “We know many people traveled to see the launch, and we are grateful for your support.”
The crew hopes to achieve one of the mission’s primary objectives within a few hours of launch, reaching an orbit with a high point, or apogee, at 1,400 km and a low point, or perigee, at 190 km. In contrast, the International Space Station flies in a circular orbit at an altitude of about 420 km.
At the peak of the Crew Dragon’s elliptical orbit, Isaacman and company will be farther from Earth than any manned spacecraft since the end of the Apollo lunar program.
The Crew Dragon will spend only about 10 hours in this extremely elliptical orbit. After that, the ship’s thrusters will fire again to lower the apogee to 435 miles.
SpaceX
The mission’s second major objective — the first nongovernmental spacewalk — is scheduled for flight day three, when Isaacman and Gillis, attached to the Crew Dragon by umbilical cords and safety tethers, will take turns floating in open space just above the Crew Dragon’s open hatch.
Since the spacecraft has no airlock, its cabin will be ventilated by vacuum before the hatch opens. Poteet and Menon will also wear pressure suits designed by SpaceX, and while they won’t be able to pop their helmeted heads out, they will be among the most skilled astronauts in spacewalking.
The main goals of the demonstration are to test the new suit’s joints, mobility and comfort to help SpaceX engineers develop spacesuits that are less expensive and easier to produce for the large numbers of people who SpaceX hopes will one day venture to the moon and Mars.
The crew also plans to test a high-speed laser communications system and will conduct a battery of biomedical experiments throughout the five-day flight to help researchers from more than 30 institutions learn more about the effects of weightlessness.
