SpaceX aims Tuesday (27 August) for the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission, which will carry a Crew Dragon spacecraft to its highest orbit and include the first private spacewalk. Here’s how to watch the historic action live.
Polaris Dawn four people on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, during a four-hour window that began at 3:38 a.m. ET (7:38 a.m. GMT)The launch was originally scheduled for Monday (26 August), but SpaceX postponed by one day to perform additional checkouts.
Both the launch and the spacewalk, scheduled for Flight Day 3 of the mission (approximately August 29), will take place on Polaris Dawns and SpaceX’s feed to X. The launch webcast will begin about an hour before liftoff. Cameras will capture the launch from the ground, outside the rocket, and inside the Crew Dragon capsule. You can also watch a live webcast on Space.com.
The Crew of the Polaris Dawn consists of billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who funded and will lead the mission, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both engineers at SpaceX.
Related: How SpaceX’s private Polaris Dawn astronauts will attempt the first purely civilian spacewalk
During the five-day mission Spaceship Crew Dragon will reach its highest orbit, about 700 kilometers above Earth. That’s about 300 kilometers above the International Space Station, where Crew Dragons normally dock on NASA astronaut missions.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned manned missions in the Polaris programwhich Isaacman is funding and directing. On the second day of Polaris Dawn, Isaacman and Gillis will spend a two-hour Spacewalk to test a newly developed spacesuit in the vacuum of space. The crew will also conduct a series of scientific and technological tests in orbit.
Follow the mission livestream on Space.com and check back often for the latest developments. A live webcast of the crew will also be available after they return to Earth.
