Space X finalizes first private spacewalk

MADRID, (EUROPA PRESS) – Space X has scheduled the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission on August 26, which will include testing a state-of-the-art spacesuit during the first private spacewalk.

The Polaris Dawn crew includes Jared Isaacman, mission commander and founder and CEO of Shift4, who also commanded Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission to space in 2021. Isaacman holds several world flight records, including two speed flights around the world.

Joining him are Mission Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and test pilot; Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, a principal space operations engineer at SpaceX, where she is responsible for overseeing the company’s astronaut training program; and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon, a principal space operations engineer at SpaceX, where she manages the development of crew operations and serves in Mission Control as the mission director and crew communicator.

The Polaris Dawn crew will harness the full performance of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule to attempt several firsts in commercial spaceflight.

For one, it will fly higher than any previous Dragon mission to date and reach the highest Earth orbit ever achieved while traveling through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt at an orbital altitude of 190 x 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the Earth’s surface, or more than three times higher than the International Space Station. This will be the highest altitude of any human spaceflight mission in more than half a century since the Apollo program.

The mission also includes attempting the first privately funded spacewalk in history. This will take place in an elliptical orbit of 190 x 700 kilometers above Earth in SpaceX’s new EVA spacesuits. During the spacewalk, the crew will perform a series of tests that will provide the necessary data that will allow SpaceX teams to produce and scale for future long-duration missions.

The mission also aims to test laser-based satellite communication using optical links between the Dragon spacecraft and Starlink satellites, “revolutionizing the speed and quality of space communications,” Space X reports.

Finally, nearly 40 critical scientific research experiments will be conducted designed to advance knowledge of human health both on Earth and during future long-duration space flights.