The four-person Polaris Dawn mission launched on September 10 with the goal of performing the first commercial spacewalk in history.
Polaris Dawn, the first private spacewalk mission, lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 4:23 p.m. on September 10 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). After liftoff, the rocket’s nine Merlin engines propelled the vehicle into the air.
About 2 minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s main engines shut down, and the booster separated from the second stage as scheduled. The booster then performed a series of engine fires to land on SpaceX’s Just Read the Instructions autonomous barge in the Atlantic Ocean. About 9.5 minutes after liftoff, the rocket landed on the barge off the east coast of Florida.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Polaris Dawn mission separated from the Falcon 9’s upper stage more than 12 minutes after liftoff. The capsule entered an elliptical orbit with a maximum altitude (apogee) of about 1,200 km and a minimum altitude (perigee) of 190 km. Over several orbits, the Crew Dragon will gradually increase its perigee to 1,400 km, higher than any astronaut has flown since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
The mission is commanded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has flown in space once before. He is the funder and commander of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission in September 2024. In addition to Isaacman, the crew includes two SpaceX employees, mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, and former US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who will serve as pilot. They will spend the next five days in space and complete 40 scientific experiments.
After the Polaris Dawn mission’s fifth day in space, the Crew Dragon will descend to perigee to 700 km and remain there until it fires its engines and returns to Earth. At this altitude, the Polaris Dawn crew will conduct the most important part of the mission, the first commercial spacewalk in history.
The extravehicular activity (EVA) will take place on day three of the mission to test SpaceX’s new EVA spacesuits. The Crew Dragon capsule has no airlock, so the entire interior of the capsule will be exposed to the vacuum of space during the EVA. As a result, all four Polaris Dawn crew members will wear spacesuits during the spacewalk, although only Isaacman and Gillis will venture outside the spacecraft.
The pair will exit the Crew Dragon capsule one at a time to test the suit’s functionality and flexibility. In total, the EVA for the Polaris Dawn mission will last about two hours, from the start of Crew Dragon’s decompression until the hatch closes and the cabin regains pressure. The crew will prepare for the spacewalk with two days of breathing a special gas mixture to remove nitrogen from their bloodstreams, thereby reducing the risk of decompression sickness.
On the fourth day of the mission, the Polaris Dawn crew will reveal a surprise message they plan to beam back to Earth via SpaceX’s Starlink internet mega-constellation. On the fifth day, the crew will prepare for the return flight after completing all other objectives.
The Crew Dragon is scheduled to land six days after launch, conducting a series of final engine burns to keep it on track. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will parachute down to a landing site off the coast of Florida, where a recovery ship will be waiting to pick up the crew.