Four private astronauts are getting ready for a daring feat in low Earth orbit, opening the hatch and exposing the crew capsule to the vacuum of space before two crew members attempt the first-ever civilian spacewalk.
The Polaris Dawn mission launched on Tuesday at 5:23 a.m. ET on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After spending roughly two days in orbit, two astronauts will venture out for an extravehicular activity outside the Dragon spacecraft in brand new spacesuits. The orbital stunt has never been attempted by a private crew, and could pave the way for more adventurous trips to space.
The spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday at 2:23 a.m. ET, and will be live-streamed on the SpaceX website and the company’s X account.
The four-person crew, led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, rode to space on board a Dragon spacecraft, which reached higher altitudes than any other SpaceX crew capsule. On Wednesday, Dragon reached a maximum orbit of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers), where it performed six orbits of Earth, breaking the record held by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission; the crewed Gemini spacecraft orbited Earth at an altitude of 853 miles (1,373 kilometers) in 1966.
After reaching apogee, Dragon performed four burns to lower itself to an orbit of 118 by 461 miles (190 by 742 kilometers) to prepare for the spacewalk, SpaceX wrote on X. On Thursday, the Dragon crew capsule will lower its altitude to 430 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth for the highly-anticipated event.
Two crew members will hop out of the Dragon spacecraft and into the vacuum of space. However, it won’t just be 50% of the crew bracing themselves for the spacewalk. Since the Dragon capsule has no airlock, the entire spacecraft has to be depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space in order to prepare the participating astronauts for the pressure outside the cabin. That means the entire crew will don their spacesuits for survival for the duration of the extravehicular activity.
SpaceX designed new spacesuits just for this occasion. In May, SpaceX unveiled the brand new spacesuits, an upgraded design of the company’s suits currently worn by astronauts on board Dragon, with additional features to support extravehicular activities. Isaacman launched alongside retired Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, as well as SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. It’s not clear which two will venture out for the spacewalk, but the entire crew has been in training for around two years in preparation for the mission.
Aside from the extravehicular adventure, the Polaris Dawn crew will also carry out more than 30 scientific experiments in orbit. The mission’s research mostly has to do with astronaut health and preparing crews for long-duration missions. NASA sent a suite of experiments along with the crew, including a device that collects vitals like blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature. Upon landing, the crew will also provide NASA with data on motion sickness, mental and physical health, and injury or discomfort during reentry.
Given the altitude reached by Dragon, the Polaris Dawn crew flew into the Van Allen radiation belts, a region of energetic charged particles that begin at around 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) above Earth. This area is considered one of the main hazards for future crewed missions to Mars as the trapped particles of the radiation belts surround Earth like an enormous donut, according to NASA. One of the mission’s tasks is to test the effects of the region’s radiation on astronaut health.
Polaris Dawn will also be the first to test SpaceX’s Starlink laser-based communication in space, which uses lasers to relay data between satellites at the speed of light. The company is hoping to develop the technology to aid in communication systems for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
After wrapping up the list of activities in orbit, the crew is scheduled to splash down off the coast of Florida, possibly as early as this coming Saturday. Polaris Dawn is the first of three private missions purchased by Isaacman. Depending on how this one goes, the next two will hopefully be just as exciting.
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