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SpaceX on Tuesday launched the ambitious Polaris Dawn mission, a multi-day orbital trip with a four-member civilian crew that will feature the first spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.
Led by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, the mission aims to travel further into space than any manned mission in fifty years, reaching a maximum altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers).
“Polaris Dawn launched!” SpaceX said along with a photo of the flight on X (formerly Twitter), adding: “Polaris Dawn launched!”
The crew — a billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees — took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at about 5:23 a.m. EST (0923 GMT).
The capsule reached orbit about nine and a half minutes later, and the crew twirled a small plush astronaut toy dog around as free fall — zero gravity — became apparent. Crew Dragon separated from its support trunk three minutes after that, with onboard cameras showing a spectacular view of the capsule falling back to a sunlit Earth.
“As you look toward the North Star, remember that your courage illuminates the map for future explorers,” SpaceX launch director Frank Messina told the crew over the radio. “We trust in your skill, your bravery and your teamwork to carry out the mission. … We are embracing you from the ground.”
The highlight of the mission will be the first spacewalk involving entirely non-professionals wearing newly developed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits equipped with head-up displays, helmet cameras and advanced joint mobility systems.
As the Dragon capsule successfully separated from the main engine and took its first glimpse of Earth, there was applause in the mission control center.
“The Polaris Dawn crew is now in ZERO-G!” SpaceX wrote a few minutes later, after the crew got their first taste of zero-gravity.
On the first day of its mission, the spacecraft will reach an altitude so high that it will briefly enter the Van Allen radiation belts, a region filled with high-energy charged particles that could pose health risks to humans over long periods of time.
The mission was delayed several times, first because of a technical problem with the launch tower and then because of weather-related constraints.
The Crew Dragon capsule will not connect to the International Space Station, which is why the weather needed to be favorable during both the launch and splashdown phases, about six days into the flight.
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