SpaceX Polaris Dawn Mission Launched
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Polaris Dawn crew in 2023: (Jared Isaacman, Sarah Gillis, Anna Menon, Scott Poteet), (taken on Jan 24, 2023, (Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polaris_Dawn_crew.jpg, Attribution: U.S. Air Force photo/Justin Pacheco, Public Domain license: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
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The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission launched on September 10, 2024, and is a significant step in private space exploration. This mission, commanded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, marks the farthest humans have traveled from Earth since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew is aiming to reach an orbit as high as 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above Earth.
Polaris Dawn is notable for its plan to conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk using SpaceX’s newly designed EVA (extravehicular activity) suits. During the spacewalk, two crew members, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, will exit the Crew Dragon capsule. Since the capsule lacks an airlock, the entire spacecraft will be depressurized, exposing all four crew members to the vacuum of space.
In addition to the spacewalk, the mission includes nearly 40 science experiments and a demonstration of data transmission through SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network. The crew is expected to spend five days in space before returning to Earth【Wikipedia】【Space.com】【NASASpaceFlight.com】
For more details about Polaris Dawn, please click HERE or refer to wikipedia excerpt below, in italics:
Polaris Dawn is a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched 10 September 2024 as the 14th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, Isaacman and his crew of three — Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — are in an elliptic orbit that took them 1,400 kilometers (870 mi) away from Earth, the farthest anyone has been since NASA’s Apollo program. They passed through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body. Later in the mission, the crew performed the first commercial spacewalk.
The Polaris Dawn mission also marked several other milestones. Menon and Gillis flew further from Earth than any women before them and Gillis, at 30 years old, became the youngest person to date to participate in a spacewalk. During the spacewalk, a new record was set for the number of people (four) simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space.
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
A live webcast of the Polaris Dawn EVA will begin about one hour prior to the beginning of the spacewalk on Thursday, September 12, which you can watch on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The four-hour window opens at 3:23 a.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, September 13 at the same time, in the video published on Sep 12, 2024, by SpaceX, as “Polaris Dawn EVA Animation“, below:
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
The four members of the SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew made history Thursday as they completed the first privately financed spacewalk in history. CBS News senior national correspondent Mark Strassmann has more, in the video published on Sep 12, 2024, by CBS News, as “What comes after SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew’s spacewalk?” below:
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn crew successfully completed the first commercial spacewalk. Ezinne Uzo-Okoro, Harvard Belfer Center senior fellow, former NASA executive, and former assistant director for space policy at the White House, joins Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde on “Bloomberg Technology.” in the video published on Sep 12, 2024, by Bloomberg Technology, as “SpaceX’s First Commercial Spacewalk“, below:
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
A live webcast of the Polaris Dawn EVA will begin about one hour prior to the beginning of the spacewalk on Thursday, September 12, which you can watch on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The four-hour window opens at 3:23 a.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, September 13 at the same time, in the video published on Sep 12, 2024, by SPaceX, as “Polaris Dawn Mission“, below:
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission conducted the first-ever private spacewalk on Sept. 12, 2024, in the video published on Sep 12, 2024, by VideoFromSpace, as “SpaceX Polaris Dawn spacewalk! See the first-ever private egress from crew“, below:
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
Live coverage from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as the Polaris Dawn crew launches on a mission to perform the world’s first commercial space walk. Liftoff from pad 39A, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday, September 10, 2024 at 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 UTC). Aboard Dragon Resilience are mission commander, Jared Isaacman, retired U.S. Air Force pilot, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and two SpaceX Lead Space Operations Engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. In addition to performing the spacewalk the crew will fly further from Earth than anyone since the Apollo era. Commentary will be provided by Will Robinson-Smith from the Spaceflight Now news bureau at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site starting about four hours prior to launch, in the video published on Sep 9, 2024, by Spaceflight Now, as “Watch live: SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn astronauts on first commercial spacewalk“, below:
Description of the video below, in italics, below:
Astrophysicist Doctor Brad Tucker discusses Elon Musk’s SpaceX making history by successfully completing the world’s first commercial spacewalk. “Previously, this has always been a limited part of space travel,” Dr Tucker said. “What Space X is trying to show is that there’s advancements in technology that will allow less trained people to train for this harsh part. “But also … showing all in one mission that a private group and civilians … can test equipment in space and not needing a national agency to do it.” in the video published on Sep 13, 2024, by Sky News Australia, as “Astrophysicist discusses SpaceX’s history-making spacewalk“, below:
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