Four private astronauts embarked on a groundbreaking space mission early Tuesday aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. The five-day Polaris Dawn mission aims to test new spacesuit designs and attempt the first private spacewalk.
The crew, including billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:23 a.m. EST. Joining Isaacman are pilot Scott Poteet, and two SpaceX employees, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Nine minutes after launch, the capsule reached orbit, marking the start of the crew’s ambitious journey.
This mission is SpaceX’s fifth private space venture but also its riskiest. The Crew Dragon will orbit Earth in an elliptical path. This will take the astronauts as far as 1,400 km from the planet—further than anyone has gone since the Apollo program in 1972.
On the third day of the mission, Isaacman and Gillis will conduct the first private spacewalk. With no airlock on the spacecraft, the cabin will be depressurized, and both astronauts will rely on their SpaceX spacesuits for oxygen.
This mission also supports scientific research, aiming to study how space affects the human body. The Polaris Dawn crew serves as test subjects for experiments involving cosmic radiation and the effects of space on human biology.
The mission is part of Isaacman’s private Polaris program, which will include future missions on SpaceX’s Starship, designed for deep space exploration.
