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Four members of a SpaceX mission that will carry out the first ever private spacewalk arrived in Florida on Monday ahead of their takeoff next week.<\/p>\n
The five-day expedition, named Polaris Dawn, will be led by US billionaire Jared Isaacman, who already chartered the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight in 2021, called Inspiration4.<\/p>\n
“It’s been two and a half years since we announced the Polaris program. It’s been a really exciting journey of development and training,” Isaacman told a press conference Monday.<\/p>\n
He did not reveal how much he has spent on the program, which includes a total of three missions and which he jointly funds with SpaceX.<\/p>\n
For the trip, the company has developed its first generation of space suits, which are white and futuristic.<\/p>\n
“This will be epic,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X, which he also owns.<\/p>\n
The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to take place before dawn next Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n
Two SpaceX employees will be on the trip: The first, Sarah Gillis, is in charge of astronaut training and trained Isaacman for Inspiration4.<\/p>\n
The second, Anna Menon, worked for NASA before joining SpaceX.<\/p>\n
“I’ve spent years trying to put myself in the seat of astronauts in space, and I am really looking forward to learning firsthand what that experience is actually like,” she said.<\/p>\n
The fourth passenger is pilot Scott Poteet, a close friend of Isaacman.<\/p>\n
The quartet has undergone intensive training: some 2,000 hours in a simulator, centrifuge sessions, scuba diving, skydiving and climbing the Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador.<\/p>\n
“I can tell you without a doubt, this has been some of the most challenging training that I’ve ever experienced,” said Poteet, who flew fighter jets for 20 years in the US Air Force.<\/p>\n
The mission has three main objectives, in addition to the 40 or so experiments that will be conducted on board.<\/p>\n
The first is to reach an altitude of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the furthest distance for a space crew since the Apollo lunar missions.<\/p>\n
Since those missions included only men, Gillis and Menon will become the two women to have traveled the farthest from Earth.<\/p>\n
By comparison, the International Space Station is located at an altitude of about 400 kilometers. The distance between the Earth and Moon is 380,000 kilometers.<\/p>\n
A second objective for the mission is to conduct a laser communication test between the ship and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n
But above all, once in a lower orbit, the astronauts will carry out the first commercial spacewalk, to be broadcast live on the mission’s third day.<\/p>\n
Since the Dragon capsule has no airlock, the whole spacecraft will be exposed to the vacuum of space when the hatch is opened.<\/p>\n
Two passengers will remain on board while the two others venture outside, with each pair having a turn spacewalking.<\/p>\n
They will perform movements to test their new space suits, including what Isaacman called a “hands-free demonstration,” all while still being linked to the capsule.<\/p>\n
The space suits are based on those already used by SpaceX, but have been developed to withstand extreme temperatures and are equipped with cameras.<\/p>\n
“Someday, someone could be wearing a version” of the suit as they are “walking on Mars,” Isaacman said, adding that it “feels like a huge honor to have that opportunity to test it out on this flight.”<\/p>\n
A second similar Polaris mission is planned after this trip, and then a planned third trip will be the first crewed flight on SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, currently under development and ultimately intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.<\/p>\n
Isaacman praised the private sector’s role in helping “unlock this last frontier.”<\/p>\n
“I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars and venturing out and exploring our solar system,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t even scratched the surface yet,” he said, adding: “There’s so much to go out and explore and discover along the way.”<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpaceX a week away from first private spacewalk (2024, August 20)
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