SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn to launch 1st-ever ‘all-civilian’ spacewalk next week

NEW DELHI — Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn spacecraft is all set to launch its first-ever ‘all-civilian’ spacewalk next week, according to the company.

The first commercial spaceflight mission with a spacewalk will drive billionaire Jared Isaacman, along with three others, for the all-civilian spacewalk, and it is expected to launch on August 26. It was previously slated for launch on July 31.

It is the first mission under “Polaris Programme” by Isaacman — the founder of Shift4, an online payment processing company.

Isaacman was also the commander of the first “all-civilian” space mission Inspiration4, launched in 2021. He purchased three spaceflights with SpaceX, and named the series “Polaris Programme”.

In a post on X, the company shared that the Polaris Dawn crew Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force who served as the mission director for Inspiration4, mission specialist Sarah Gillis, who oversees SpaceX’s astronaut training programme, and medical officer Anna Menon, who manages the development of SpaceX’s crew operations while also serving the company’s mission control has arrived at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) — the launch site.

 “Man I love flying!! Arrival into the historic shuttle landing facility at KSC. Countdown continues…,” Poteet said in a post on X.com.

The multi-day trip, will be a free-flying mission, and is expected to fly higher than any crewed mission since the Apollo Programme ended in the 1970s, “endeavouring to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown”.

 “We’re going to a very high altitude that humans haven’t gone to in 50-plus years,” Isaacman was quoted as saying to the media.

 “This will be a super cool mission on many levels. The furthest distance from Earth of a crewed spacecraft in over half a century! Only Apollo was higher,” added Musk said, in a post on X.com.

The teams will also research to better understand the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.

The crew will also “be the first crew to test Starlink laser-based communications in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond”.