One of the most highly anticipated missions in 2024 is now mere days away from taking flight. The Polaris Dawn mission, scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon with a four-person complement no earlier than Monday, Aug. 26, will see the introduction of new technologies and many records eclipsed — setting a high benchmark for the program going forward.
This mission will be the first of three flights currently listed under the banner of Polaris, a private spaceflight program run by entrepreneur and aerospace tourist Jared “Rook” Isaacman. The New Jersey native founded the program to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities whilst making charitable contributions to and raising awareness for children’s medical research at St. Jude’s Hospital.
In addition to organizing and managing the SpaceX-contracted venture, Isaacman will serve to command each Polaris flight (Polaris Dawn included), building upon his spaceflight résumé as commander of the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission that flew to low-Earth orbit in September 2021.
We are targeting no earlier than August 26 for the launch of Polaris Dawn pic.twitter.com/tkkiRke64a
— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) August 7, 2024
Polaris Dawn will see the first trips to space for the remainder of the mission’s crew, which consists of three individuals with prior experience within the aerospace industry.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired United States Air Force pilot with 3,200 flight hours under his belt, will be the spacecraft pilot for the Polaris Dawn mission. Poteet has allied with Isaacman for many years, having held management positions at Isaacman’s companies Draken International and Shift4. Additionally, he served as mission director for the Inspiration4 mission.
SpaceX lead space operations engineer Sarah Gillis will join the Polaris Dawn crew as one of the mission specialists. Her main responsibility at SpaceX has been to oversee the company’s astronaut training program, having prepared the crews of the Demo-2, Crew-1, and Inspiration4 for their respective flights on Crew Dragon.
Anna Menon will hold the distinction of being Polaris Dawn’s onboard medical officer, alongside her role as a mission specialist. She previously served as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, working in the post for six years before joining SpaceX to become a Dragon mission director.
The crew is slated to spend up to five days in Earth orbit after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and attempt to achieve a maximum altitude of 1,400 km (870 mi) — the furthest any human has been from Earth since the Apollo program. This will also result in the Dragon spacecraft passing through the Van Allen radiation belt, which will aid the mission objective of studying the health effects of space radiation.
Visualization of a Polaris Dawn astronaut egressing Dragon as part of the mission’s planned spacewalk. (Credit: Polaris/SpaceX)
After this, Dragon will move to a lower orbital altitude on the third flight day to meet one of the mission’s main objectives: the first commercial spacewalk in history. During the spacewalk, the crew will test the new SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) suit in the vacuum of space for the first time. These suits are based on the company’s intravehicular activity (IVA) suit design and feature many structural and engineering upgrades.
This two-hour EVA will see the mission crew donning the EVA suits before the Dragon spacecraft is depressurized. After this, commander Isaacman and mission specialist Gillis will egress the vehicle’s forward hatch and perform a tethered spacewalk. In addition to the new suits, the Dragon spacecraft has been appropriately modified to support this mission profile.
Polaris Dawn will also feature the first crewed operational test of laser interlink communications from Dragon via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet constellation, aimed at reducing latency and increasing data bandwidth for human spaceflight missions.
Following these tests and other experiments, Dragon will bring the Polaris Dawn crew back home and splashdown off the Florida coast, either in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean.
Jared, Kidd, Anna, & Sarah – welcome to the KSC!
The crew of @PolarisProgram’s inaugural mission have arrived to America’s premier spaceport in a trio of Alpha Jets and pair of L-39’s. Standing by for the upcoming press conference ~12:45pm local time.
7 more days until game… pic.twitter.com/ufQZF4xyoi
— Max Evans (@_mgde_) August 19, 2024
Polaris Dawn is only the beginning of Polaris’ mission plans. A second mission is also slated to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon, but the launch date, crew, and mission profile have not been announced at this time. Isaacman has offered to service or reboost NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on this mission, but the agency has since indicated it has decided to not pursue the option.
The third and currently final Polaris flight is set to be the first crewed mission launched on SpaceX’s next-generation Starship launch system, with a launch date, crew complement, or mission profile yet to be determined. As Starship is still in early flight testing as of 2024, the mission is understood not to occur until the vehicle is fully matured and certified for human spaceflight.
With three ambitious flights ready to go in its catalog and a healthy contingent of support, Polaris is set to change the face of commercial and human spaceflight in short order, eventually leaving a ripple effect to be felt by future crews as they leave Earth for missions to the Moon, Mars, and possibly beyond.
(Lead image: the crew of Polaris Dawn give a thumbs-up after their arrival at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for launch. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)