SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Crew to Travel Farther than Any Human in Decades, Poised for Historic Private Spacewalk

The upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, set to launch early on Tuesday morning, August 27, will make history as it sends four people to orbit for five days aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

This groundbreaking mission marks a significant milestone in private space exploration, with two crewmembers set to perform the first-ever spacewalk conducted by a private mission.

Polaris Dawn, funded and organized by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, aims to push the boundaries of human spaceflight.

The crew will travel farther from Earth than any human has since the Apollo era, setting the stage for a series of significant achievements in space exploration.

First-Ever Private Spacewalk

One of the key moments of the mission is the highly anticipated spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), scheduled for the third day of the mission, on Thursday, August 29.

SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn team have not yet confirmed a specific time for the EVA, but the event will be broadcast live via a SpaceX webcast, allowing viewers worldwide to witness history in the making.

Commander Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis will don EVA suits and venture outside the Crew Dragon capsule.

The other two crewmembers, SpaceX engineer Anna Menon and former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet, will also wear their EVA suits, as the capsule’s interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space due to the absence of an airlock.

This unique design adds a layer of complexity to the spacewalk, requiring careful coordination among the crew.

Polaris Dawn Mission: A Complex and Carefully Choreographed EVA

The EVA operation is expected to last approximately two hours, with the actual spacewalking component making up about one-third of that time.

Isaacman and Gillis will conduct their spacewalks sequentially, spending 15 to 20 minutes each outside the capsule.

Unlike the iconic spacewalk of American astronaut Ed White in June 1965, where White floated freely tethered to his Gemini capsule, Isaacman and Gillis will maintain at least one point of contact with mobility aids engineered specifically for this mission.

“We’re just not going to be floating around,” Isaacman emphasized during a press conference on Monday, August 19.

“It’ll look like we’re doing a little bit of a dance as we go through a series of test matrices on the suit. The idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about the suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions.”

Pioneering Space Suits for Future Exploration

The EVA suits designed by SpaceX are not just for Polaris Dawn but are intended for use in future missions, including potential human expeditions to Mars.

Isaacman acknowledged the long-term significance of the suit tests, stating, “It’s not lost on us that, you know, it might be 10 iterations from now and a bunch of evolutions of the suit, but that, someday, someone could be wearing a version of which that might be walking on Mars”.

“And it feels like, again, a huge honor to have that opportunity to test it out on this flight.”

Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program.

The ultimate goal is to pave the way for the first crewed mission aboard Starship, the massive vehicle SpaceX is developing to help humanity establish a presence on the moon and Mars.

A Step Toward the Future

With its ambitious objectives and cutting-edge technology, Polaris Dawn is more than just a mission; it represents a bold step forward in the evolution of space exploration.

The outcomes of this mission could lay the groundwork for future private missions, enhancing humanity’s capabilities to explore and eventually settle other worlds.

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