From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated.
In addition to news coverage, you can find updates on Polaris Dawn on the mission's website, X, Instagram and Flickr, where photos from the mission will be posted.
From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated.
The crew comprises four members. They are:
Jared Isaacman, the Shift4 CEO, who's said to be spending hundreds of million dollars on the mission, on which he'll serve as mission commander. Isaacman was on the Inspiration4 mission in 2021 as well.
Sarah Gillis, SpaceX's senior operations engineer, who's trained NASA astronauts and who'll serve as mission specialist for Polaris Dawn. Along with Isaacman, she'll be one of the two crew members who perform the spacewalk.
Scott Poteet, who served as mission director of Inspiration4, is a former fighter jet pilot for the US Air Force. He'll be doing communications and spacewalk assistance on the mission.
Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX, will be in charge of the crew's health during Polaris Dawn.
In addition to the spacewalk, which Isaacman and Gillis were the first private astronauts to perform, the mission is testing laser communications with Starlink and performing a series of biology and human endurance tests, according to the Polaris Dawn website.
The spacecraft traveled to an orbit of about 870 miles above the Earth, just past the altitude record of 853 miles set by the Gemini XI mission in 1966, according to The New York Times. For comparison, the International Space Station orbits at roughly 250 miles.
Polaris Dawn is expected to be the first of three missions, the next two of which would use SpaceX's new Starship rocket.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 5:23 a.m. ET on Tuesday, following two weeks of postponements. SpaceX marked the occasion with a short, to-the-point message on X: "Liftoff of Polaris Dawn!" Shortly afterward, the first-stage booster returned, landing on its target droneship as the spacecraft continued its ascent. Within 15 minutes, the crew was in orbit.
Tuesday's launch window was the latest in a series of opportunities that had come and gone since late August. "Targeting no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 10 for Falcon 9's launch of the Polaris Dawn mission," SpaceX said in a post on the X social network (formerly Twitter) late Monday. "Weather is currently 40% favorable for liftoff, and conditions at the possible splashdown sites for Dragon's return to Earth remain a watch item."
The original launch date in the last week of August was scrubbed to allow for "a closer look at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical," SpaceX said at the time in an X post. A day later, the Polaris Dawn team stood down again "due to unfavorable weather in Dragon's splashdown area off the coast of Florida," the company said. Isaacman had earlier posted on X that the launch team would assess conditions day by day.
"Crew safety is absolutely paramount and this mission carries more risk than usual, as it will be the furthest humans have traveled from Earth since Apollo and the first commercial spacewalk!" Musk posted in late August on X, which he owns. "If any concerns arise, the launch will be postponed until those concerns are addressed."
Correction, Aug. 28: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the name of Jared Isaacman's company. He's CEO of Shift4.
Source: cnet.com