SpaceX’s unique Polaris Dawn mission gets a launch date

By Trevor Mogg Published August 7, 2024

SpaceX’s upcoming Polaris Dawn mission will see four nonprofessional astronauts fly aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft to an orbit 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth, taking it about 185 miles (298 kilometers) above the International Space Station (ISS) and much higher than any Crew Dragon has flown.

In an exciting development, SpaceX has just announced a target launch date for the much-anticipated five-day mission: Monday, August 26.

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“We are targeting no earlier than August 26 for the launch of Polaris Dawn,” the Elon Musk-led spaceflight company said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday that included photos of the four crew members.

We are targeting no earlier than August 26 for the launch of Polaris Dawn pic.twitter.com/tkkiRke64a

— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) August 7, 2024

The Polaris Dawn mission will be only the second Crew Dragon flight that doesn’t involve docking with the ISS. The other one was the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission in 2021 that stayed in orbit for a couple of days.

Inspiration4 mission commander Jared Isaacman will also be leading this month’s Polaris Dawn flight. The billionaire businessman and CEO of payment-processing firm Shift4 is also funding the mission.

Flying alongside Isaacman on the Polaris Dawn mission will be Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant colonel; Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX responsible for overseeing the its astronaut training program; and Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX, where she manages the development of crew operations and also works in mission control.

The mission will also feature the first commercial spacewalk. Isaacman and Gillis will aim to spend a couple of hours outside the Crew Dragon, testing a newly designed suit to confirm that it’s able to move and function as designed in the microgravity conditions.

The crew will also be the first to test Starlink laser-based communications in space. The system will provide useful data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

SpaceX will live stream the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in just a few weeks from now. Check back later for full details on how to watch.

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Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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