Historic SpaceX Mission Set to Launch: Private Astronauts Prepare for First-Ever Private Spacewalk

A crew of four private astronauts is gearing up for a groundbreaking SpaceX mission set to launch early Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This ambitious mission aims to achieve the first-ever private spacewalk using newly designed spacesuits and a revamped spacecraft.

The crew includes billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired military pilot Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. They are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule at 3:38 a.m. ET (0738 GMT). This mission, named Polaris Dawn, marks SpaceX’s fifth private spaceflight and carries heightened risks, as it will take humans further from Earth than any crew since the Apollo program.

Last month’s launch was delayed due to a helium leak in ground equipment and subsequent issues with the Falcon 9 rocket, which has now been cleared for flight. However, the mission faces a challenging 40% chance of favorable weather.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, highlighted the mission’s significance on social media, emphasizing that crew safety remains a top priority. The Polaris Dawn mission will last about five days, with an orbital path reaching altitudes of up to 1,400 km (870 miles) from Earth. The spacewalk is planned for the third day at 700 km (435 miles) and will last approximately 20 minutes, requiring the capsule to be depressurized as the astronauts venture outside.

Isaacman is financing the mission, following his previous collaboration with SpaceX on the Inspiration4 flight in 2021. While he hasn’t disclosed the costs, they are expected to be in the hundreds of millions. The mission will serve as a test bed for various scientific experiments aimed at understanding the effects of cosmic radiation and space’s vacuum on the human body.

Since retiring the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA has depended on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). In addition to the Polaris Dawn mission, SpaceX has completed four private missions, including Isaacman’s earlier flight. Meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft continues to face developmental challenges.