SpaceX has changed the target date for its historic Polaris Dawn mission. At the start of this month, the Elon Musk-led spaceflight company said it was targeting no earlier than July 31 for the mission, but it’s now shifted this to mid-to-late August.
The delay to the launch of Polaris Dawn appears to be due to a decision by SpaceX to focus on the Crew-9 launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), a mission that is currently targeting August 18.
The Polaris Dawn voyage will see four nonprofessional astronauts fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to an orbit about 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth. This will take it around 185 miles (298 kilometers) above the ISS, to a point further from Earth than any Crew Dragon has flown before.
The mission is also eyeing another record by becoming the first to involve a commercial spacewalk. This will take place as the Crew Dragon and its four crew members travel through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt. The walk will involve two Polaris Dawn crew members and is likely to take a couple of hours. The goal is to fully test new specially designed spacesuits.
The five-day Polaris Dawn mission will also carry out research aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. It will also be the first to test Starlink laser-based communications in space as part of efforts to develop a future space communications system for missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
Billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman — the CEO of payment processing firm Shift4 and an accomplished pilot — is funding the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission. His name will be familiar to those who followed the Inspiration4 mission in 2021 in which he led three other non-professional astronauts on the first all-civilian orbital flight.
Commenting on the delay to the Polaris Dawn mission in an interview with Singapore’s CNA on Saturday, Isaacman said: “We’re a little late … it’s probably late August when we’ll launch,” .
Isaacman will fly on the Polaris Dawn mission with Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who served 20 years in various roles; Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX who’s responsible for overseeing the company’s astronaut training program; and Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX, where she manages the development of crew operations and also serves in mission control.