A billionaire, a pilot, and two SpaceX employees left Florida September 10th on an ambitious space mission. This mission marks a significant step in the commercial exploration of space, featuring the first private “spacewalk” in history.
The Falcon 9 rocket launched early in the morning from Kennedy Space Center. The Dragon capsule entered orbit, where the Polaris Dawn (“Dawn of the Pole Star”) mission’s passengers will stay.
Radiation and safety measures
The astronauts will pass through a region of space known as the Van Allen belt, which contains high levels of radiation. The crew will be protected by the spacecraft and their spacesuits.
As they pass through the belt, they will encounter radiation equivalent to three months of exposure experienced by astronauts on the International Space Station, but it will remain within acceptable limits. This will allow them to study the effects that a relatively short but safe exposure has on the human body.
“Congratulations to the SpaceX teams and the crew of the Polaris program,” said Elon Musk, the company’s founder, on Platform X.
Who are the four members of the Space X mission crew?
The leader of this five-day mission is US billionaire Jared Isaacman. He has been working with SpaceX for many years and is financing part of the trip. To this day, the exact amount he paid remains undisclosed.
One of the main goals is to test the company’s new, white, futuristic suits. The plan includes a brief exit from the capsule for a spacewalk.
The spacecraft will reach an altitude of 1,400 kilometers, the highest for a manned mission since the Apollo missions. Consequently, SpaceX mission employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon will become the first women to travel such a great distance from Earth.
The fourth passenger is pilot Scott Potitt, a former US Air Force member and close associate of Isaacman.
Mission goals and achievements
This will be the first spacewalk by non-professional astronauts. Therefore, the crew will conduct the spacewalk early Thursday morning and broadcast it live to Earth. Two passengers will remain within the capsule while the other two take turns exiting for about fifteen minutes each. They will stay tethered to the spacecraft and perform various movements to test the new suits equipped with cameras.
“We’re going to give the impression that we’re dancing,” Isaacman explained. “I imagine that one day many people, or even entire families, will visit the moon wearing SpaceX suits. Hence, it’s a huge honor to test them on this flight,” he added.
The crew will conduct about thirty experiments during the flight, including measuring changes in eye pressure with contact lenses.
The four passengers trained intensively for two years, completing two thousand hours in a flight simulator, diving, and skydiving. Isaacman, who owns the financial firm Shift4, previously traveled to space in 2021 on another SpaceX mission.
You may watch the launch at 5:53:30 in the video below.