Mission type | Private spaceflight |
---|---|
Operator | SpaceX |
Website | polarisprogram.com/dawn |
Mission duration | 5 days (planned) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Crew Dragon Resilience |
Spacecraft type | Crew Dragon |
Crew | |
Crew size | 4 |
Members | Jared Isaacman Scott Poteet Sarah Gillis Anna Menon |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | NET April 2024 (planned)[1] |
Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 |
Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A |
Contractor | SpaceX |
Orbital parameters | |
Periapsis altitude | 190 km (120 mi) |
Apoapsis altitude | 1,400 km (870 mi) (initially) 750 km (470 mi) (later)[2] |
Inclination | 51.6° |
Mission Patch Isaacman, Poteet, Gillis, and Menon |
Polaris Dawn is a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman,[3][4] scheduled to launch no earlier than April 2024.[1] The flight will be using a Crew Dragon capsule, and is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program.[5]
The Polaris Dawn program was announced by Jared Isaacman in February 2022, five months after the first all-private astronaut mission, Inspiration 4, which was also financially backed by Isaacman.[6][7] Development of several technologies necessary for the mission is also part of the program, including extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits for private astronauts, intersatellite laser communication links between the Dragon spacecraft and the Starlink constellation, and some accommodation for the lack of an airlock in the legacy Dragon capsule design.[8]
Originally slated to fly as early as late 2022, the program suffered delays over the design of the EVA spacesuits and technical problems with SpaceX testing intersatellite laser communication links. By October 2022, the launch had already slipped to March 2023,[9][10] and by February 2023, had slipped to no earlier than summer 2023.[11][12] By mid-2023, the planned date had slipped to sometime in 2024,[13] with Isaacman confirming in December a launch date of April 2024.[8]
Polaris Dawn will be a human spaceflight to orbit Earth with only private citizens on board. The crew will consist of Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon, who will spend up to five days in orbit. Mission plans include reaching an orbit higher than any previous Dragon mission and ultimately the highest Earth orbit ever flown by a crewed spacecraft with an initial apogee of 1,400 km,[2][8] breaking the record set by Gemini 11.[14] The crew will conduct 38 science and research experiments to study the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.[15] The crew will also attempt the first commercial EVA with SpaceX-designed EVA spacesuits,[16] as well as be the first crewed operational test of Dragon laser interlink communication via Starlink. If successful, it would potentially decrease communication latency and increase data bandwidth for human spaceflight.[17]
Position | Astronaut | |
---|---|---|
Mission Commander | Jared Isaacman, Polaris program Second spaceflight | |
Mission Pilot | Scott Poteet, Polaris program First spaceflight | |
Payload Specialist | Sarah Gillis, Polaris program First spaceflight | |
Medical Officer | Anna Menon, Polaris program First spaceflight |