By Dean Murray via SWNS
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the Polaris Dawn mission from Florida Tuesday morning.
Polaris Dawn is a private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, and is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program.
The @PolarisProgram astronaut mission is headed for an altitude 3 times higher than the Space Station, the furthest that humans have been from Earth in over half a century! pic.twitter.com/lYgsA5vMGk— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 10, 2024
Isaacman and his crew of three — Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — are on a trajectory toward a highly elliptical orbit that will take them up to 1,400km (870mi) away from Earth, the farthest anyone has been since NASA’s Apollo program. Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew will spend up to five days in orbit
During the mission, Isaacman and Gillis are expected to attempt the first-ever commercial extravehicular activity (EVA) with SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits.
Polaris Dawn launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.
