First SpaceX spacewalk: Polaris mission commander describes the plan

SpaceX is preparing to launch its private Polaris mission in a week, featuring the first attempt to have commercial astronauts step out into space.

SpaceX is preparing to launch its next private mission by the end of the month, featuring the first attempt to have the astronauts step out into space.

The Polaris Dawn mission — the first of three flights billionaire and Shift4 founder Jared Isaacman purchased from SpaceX in 2022 for his human spaceflight effort known as the Polaris Program — is set to launch from Florida in the early hours of Aug. 26.

“We don’t get the freedom of any time of day to launch but I think it’ll work out to [be] pretty close to dawn, which is very appropriate given the mission,” Isaacman told CNBC’s Investing in Space during an interview last month.

Isaacman will be commanding the mission, as he did while leading the historic Inspiration4 flight in 2021. He’s once again leading a crew of four, with longtime colleague Scott Poteet joining him as the pilot and Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, a pair of SpaceX employees, serving as the flight’s medical officer and mission specialist, respectively.

The multi-day trip isn’t headed to a destination, but instead will be a free-flying mission tracing orbits that the crew hopes will go far from Earth.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/spacex-first-spacewalk-polaris-mission-commander-rcna167189

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