The Polaris Dawn mission launched this Tuesday aboard a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket, both from SpaceX, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA).
The spacecraft surpassed 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from Earth tonight, on its second day in orbit, marking the farthest journey by a crewed spacecraft in over 50 years since the end of NASA’s Apollo program in 1972. The mission reached that altitude just 15 hours after launch, after completing the six planned orbits around the Earth’s surface.
Elon Musk’s company’s spacecraft is commanded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, accompanied by former US Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who will serve as specialist and flight medical officer, respectively. After reaching 1,400 km, Menon and Gillis have become the women who have traveled farthest from Earth in history, surpassing other NASA space operations. US astronaut Kathryn Sullivan reached about 620 kilometers (386 miles) aboard a space shuttle.
The four astronauts will remain in orbit for five days and will test new space suits that allow for greater mobility. They have also begun flying through the Van Allen belts, two bands of radiation consisting of high-energy particles from the Sun and the interaction of the atmosphere with cosmic rays.
The Dragon spacecraft will now descend to prepare for one of the mission’s main objectives: to perform the first private spacewalk. It is scheduled for 2:23 am on Thursday, Eastern time, and if not possible, it will be done on Friday at the same time. The spacewalk will take place 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Earth. The walk will last about two hours and will be carried out by Isaacman and Gillis, who will be assisted by 3.5-meter (12-foot) long tethers. The operation will be broadcast live with several cameras set up inside and outside the capsule, through which Isaacman and then Gillis will exit.
The suits, which will be pressurized and equipped with cameras, will be used by all four crew members because the Dragon does not have airlocks, and therefore the entire capsule must be depressurized before opening the hatch for the spacewalk.
The mission, which will conclude on the sixth day with a splashdown off the coast of Florida, is one of three that Isaacman, founder of the online payment company Shift4, purchased from SpaceX in 2022 for his Polaris Program, at an undisclosed amount. The entrepreneur already commanded the historic Inspiration4 mission in 2021, the first fully commercial mission to orbit the planet.
via: MiMub in Spanish