Billionaire Jared Isaacman and his Polaris Dawn crew of commercial astronauts will do the first-ever private spacewalk next week. The crew arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, ahead of their launch with SpaceX scheduled for August 27 at 3:38am eastern.
It’s the first in a series of Polaris spaceflights, which will culminate with the first crewed flight on a SpaceX Starship in the coming years.
We met Isaacman and some of his crew last year, flying with him in his MiG-29 alongside the Polaris Alpha jets for a glimpse of their flight training for the mission. Read all about that HERE.
The crew
The crew are all well versed and experienced in aerospace. Isaacman has already flown to space once, commanding the first-ever all-civilian crew on the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, which inspired the Polaris program. He has 7,000+ hours of flight experience, with ratings in multiple experimental and ex-military aircraft.
He also co-founded the world’s largest private air force, Draken, which helps train USAF and other pilots by role-playing the bad guys. Known by his call sign ROOK, he holds several world records including two speed-around-the-world flights.
Retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel and fighter pilot Scott “KIDD” Poteet is mission pilot.
A former Thunderbird and commander of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, he brings over 3,200 flying hours in the F-16, A-4, T-38 and other aircraft, including 400 combat hours.
Rook and Kidd will be joined by Mission Specialist/Medical Officer Anna Menon and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, who are both lead operations engineers at SpaceX.
All 4 crew worked closely together on Inspiration4. They built a unique bond and trust that will serve them well on Polaris Dawn.
The mission
They will lift-off from historic pad 39A atop a Falcon 9 rocket, on the Crew Dragon “Resilience”. This isn’t a self-indulgent joy ride or suborbital tourist hop. The 4 astronauts will fly for 5 days, going further into space than any humans since the Apollo moon landings, aiming for an 870-mile-high oval-shaped orbit. In doing so they will achieve the highest Earth-orbit that any crew has ever flown (over 1,400 km), surpassing the Gemini record.
“We will fly Dragon deeper into space than it has ever been,” says Isaccman. “There’s a lot we can learn in the Van Allen radiation belts, and hopefully develop counter-measures against the radiation for future long-duration spaceflights.”
They will conduct 38 experiments from 23 institutions from around the world. It’s serious business, with serious objectives and specialized research.
Polaris Dawn will also test and use SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation, to demonstrate laser-based communications. Testing that will inform future evolutionary upgrades for the technology. Laser communications will be critical for future long-term crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.
The first-ever private spacewalk
The spacewalk will occur some 700 kilometers above Earth. The crew will be the first to ever use the new spacesuits developed by SpaceX.
The Dragon itself had to be modified just for the spacewalk. It will need to be depressurized for the spacewalk, in a similar way that NASA’s Gemini capsules were in the 1960s. Without an airlock, they will need to decrease cabin pressure and raise the oxygen concentration.
It’s kind of like a scuba diver doing pre-breathing to avoid getting “the bends”, except the crew will begin the process soon after launch, taking 2 days to “pre-breathe” before the spacewalk. All 4 astronauts will need to wear the new suits too since they will be exposed to the vacuum of space. Isaacman and Gillis will do the actual spacewalking, tethered to the Dragon.
With such limited room onboard, they won’t wear the traditional pressure suits other crews have for launch and re-entry. They will wear the new spacewalk suits.
“It’s not an airlock that has to be qualified to vacuum. The entire Dragon has to be done,” says Isaacman. “We’re also going to be using a higher rate of consumables, because we need to use oxygen for cooling. So, we need a lot more tanks than a typical Dragon, plus, the air needed to re-pressurize it.”
Raising money for St Jude Children’s Hospital
While Isaacman and Polaris Dawn will execute serious business to advance the future of spaceflight and technology needed for it, they never forget problems here on Earth. Their cause is St Jude Children’s Hospital, raising money for them every step of the way.
The Inspiration4 mission did the same, raising $250 million. One of the crew members was even a previous resident.
You can learn more about Polaris and donate to their cause HERE.
