SpaceX again postpones launch of private Polaris mission
SpaceX has again pushed back the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission — which is expected to carry four private citizens to space — this time due unfavorable weather.
SpaceX has once again pushed back the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission, which is expected to carry four private citizens to space, this time because of an unfavorable weather forecast.
The company attributed the delay to poor conditions off the coast of Florida, but it did not specify whether the primary concern was weather that could affect the spacecraft's splashdown in the event of an emergency or if the risk pertained to the crew's return at the end of the five-day journey.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon were scheduled to launch early Wednesday on the mission, which is expected to feature the first spacewalk carried out by an all-civilian crew.
Isaacman said in a post on X that the Polaris Dawn mission is “heavily constrained” by projected splashdown conditions because the capsule is not docking at the International Space Station, where the astronauts could potentially wait out bad weather.
“With no ISS rendezvous and limited life support consumables, we must be absolutely sure of reentry weather before launching,” he wrote.
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