13.12.2023
SpaceX private Polaris Dawn space mission delayed to April 2024
"Schedule slips should be expected."
Polaris Dawn crewmembers Anna Menon, Scott Pottet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis in front of SpaceX Starship spacecraft versions. (Image credit: Polaris Program / John Kraus)
A SpaceX mission featuring the first private spacewalk is delayed once again, this time to April 2024. It's known as Polaris Dawn.
Jared Isaacman, the billionaire funding the private space mission in collaboration with SpaceX, disclosed the news Saturday (Dec. 9) in replies on X (formerly Twitter) to a question about when his mission will run.
"April is the goal to launch & the pace of training is accelerating," Isaacman wrote, adding in another tweet, "It's a development program with ambitious objectives. Schedule slips should be expected."
The mission timeline has now been pushed back approximately 18 months from the initial launch target of the fourth quarter of 2022, set when Isaacman first announced the program in February 2022.
Polaris Dawn is the gate-opener mission of the Isaacman-funded Polaris Program, which aims to conduct three private missions using SpaceX spacecraft. Isaacman was also the commander of Inspiration4, a 2021 space excursion that sent four civilian astronauts (including Isaacman) to orbit aboard a SpaceX craft and raised money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
Polaris Dawn aims to attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk, test Starlink in space and do science work. Astronauts include Isaacman as commander, pilot Scott Poteet (a retired U.S. Air Force colonel), and senior SpaceX ground controllers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Like Inspiration4, Polaris Dawn will also raise money for St. Jude.
The Polaris Dawn crew smiles for the camera during diving training at U.S. Air Force Academy. From left: Scott Pottet, Sarah Gallis, Anna Menon and Jared Isaacman. (Image credit: Polaris Program/John Kraus)
In another X post, Isaacman outlined some challenges that are in store for the Polaris Dawn team in developing the mission. For instance, it will require new spacesuits optimized for spacewalks that are different from the intravehicular sleek spacesuits SpaceX typically uses for astronaut missions.
"That includes suit changes for mobility, life support redundancy, sun glare, some resiliency to MMOD (micrometeorites and orbital debris)," Isaacman wrote, adding that Crew Dragon also needs to be designed to let out air and then let it back in again: "The vehicle was (initially) designed to go to vacuum only in an emergency," he said.
The laser experiment is facing unspecified challenges: "It's not just turning the router switch to the ON position (as) every Draco (thruster) firing could break a link," Isaacman said.
There are also concerns about the radiation exposure the crew would face as they attempt to break an altitude record in low Earth orbit: "Avionics don't like radiation which means there is a lot to analyze and sim to get right."
Isaacman emphasized he has confidence in the team in fixing these issues: "SpaceX engineers are doing an outstanding job tackling big problems very quickly."
The larger Polaris Program is still in the early stages of planning, but Isaacman has said he wants to use Starship for at least one of the missions. He also has offered to boost the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope; NASA has opened solicitations to the community to see about the feasibility of other offers.
Starship itself is facing technical challenges that will likely see some of its bigger contracts delay as well, as the system has made two space attempts in 2023. The spacecraft soared high in the air on both occasions, but never achieved its goal of circling the Earth and splashing down again.
NASA's first human moon landing with Starship, Artemis 3, will likely now take place no earlier than 2027, according to a recent report with the Government Accountability Office. The agency has been warning for months that the moon landing will likely delay from 2025 while Starship continues testing, but it is prepared to pivot to other types of missions for the moonbound Artemis program. A round-the-moon mission known as Artemis 2 will launch with four astronauts onboard in late 2024, using NASA's Orion spacecraft.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 11.02.2024
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SpaceX's private Polaris Dawn orbital mission delayed to summer 2024
Launch had been targeted for April.
Illustration of a Polaris Dawn crewmember conducting the first-ever private spacewalk. (Image credit: Polaris Program via X)
We'll have to wait a few more months to see the first-ever private spacewalk.
Launch of the private Polaris Dawn mission — which aims to notch that milestone, as well as test SpaceX's Starlink internet service in space and conduct a variety of science experiments — has been delayed from April to no earlier than this summer, its organizers announced on Thursday (Feb. 8).
"The additional time continues to provide necessary developmental time to ensure both the completion of these mission goals and a safe launch and return of Dragon and the crew," the Polaris Program said via X on Thursday.
As that post indicates, Polaris Dawn will use SpaceX hardware, launching four people to Earth orbit in a Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Those four are Jared Isaacman, the billionaire behind the Polaris Program of private space exploration, retired U.S. Air Force colonel Scott Poteet, and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
Isaacman will command Polaris Dawn. Poteet will serve as pilot, and Gillis and Menon will be the payload specialist and medical officer, respectively.
Polaris Dawn will spend up to five days in Earth orbit. Like September 2021's Inspiration4 mission, which Isaacman also commanded and funded, Polaris Dawn will be a free flyer; it will not meet up with the International Space Station. The coming mission will also raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, as Inspiration4 did.
The latest delay is not the first for Polaris Dawn; it initially was targeted to launch in late 2022.
Polaris Dawn will be the first of three missions in the Polaris Program, which Isaacman wants to help push the boundaries of private spaceflight.
The billionaire entrepreneur has said that he plans to use SpaceX's next-generation Starship rocket for at least one of the Polaris missions. Starship has conducted two test flights to date, in April and November of last year. SpaceX is currently gearing up for Starship's third flight, which could lift off as soon as this month.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 16.04.2024
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Polaris Dawn is getting closer and closer to being launch ready
Things are slowly falling into place for the Polaris Program‘s first mission, Polaris Dawn. The mission is nearing milestones that might finally give it a launch date that will actually hold.
Polaris Dawn Dragon and spacesuit finishing testing
Polaris Dawn, a private mission being paid for by Shift4 CEO Jared Issacman, who also paid for and flew on Inspiration4 in 2021. The goal of the mission is to fly higher than any human spaceflight since Apollo, perform the first private spacewalk, and conduct numerous science experiments in orbit.
Like Inspiration4, Polaris is partnering with SpaceX to complete this. Currently, SpaceX is the only company capable of this sort of feat. To do so, the company has modified its Dragon spacecraft to support spacewalk operations and develop an upgraded spacesuit to be used in the vacuum of space.
That spacecraft was sent to vacuum chamber testing earlier this month. Teams will recreate expected conditions in space by lowering and raising the vehicle’s pressures to ensure Dragon performs as expected both during and after the first commercial spacewalk,” SpaceX stated on social media.
This will be able to close out the vast majority of concerns with bringing a vacuum into the Dragon’s main cabin, although no test is as good as doing it in the real world. Polaris Dawn is set to launch in early summer, so just like the early NASA astronauts that took part in the Gemini Program, the crew of Polaris Dawn will be pushing what Dragon was designed to do.
The crew will be safe from being inside a vacuum while in Dragon as they will be wearing an upgraded suit that according to Issacman, finished development in March. While the current flight suit used by SpaceX Dragon passengers would work for keeping them safe in a vacuum, it is not designed to be used outside the spacecraft. Really, it wouldn’t be much use outside of one of the Dragon’s four seats as the hose used to connect it to the life-support systems doesn’t look to be that long.
SpaceNews reported in February that the new spacesuit was the main factor to why Polaris Dawn has been delayed for so long. When it was announced in early February 2022, the first launch date was sometime in Q4 2022.
Over two years later, we’re still waiting on a solid launch date to be shared. Although I feel that we are getting really close.
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What is the purpose of the Polaris Program?
As mentioned earlier, the Polaris Program was announced in early 2022 and is being paid for by Jared Issacman of Shift4 and Inspiration4. You can pretty much think of it as a privately funded space program.
With current space programs, especially NASA, no longer taking huge risks like it did back in 1960s, pushing what is possible, Polaris seems to be that for SpaceX. Polaris Dawn as we talked about already, will be step one, pushing the limits of what SpaceX can do right now with Dragon.
What comes next is a little up in the air but at least two missions are in the works. First will be a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. After being in space for over three decades, parts that have a limited lifespan are beginning to fail. While SpaceX and NASA are currently evaluating potential plans, if a crewed mission would be selected, Issacman would want Polaris to be used for it.
Another mission of the Polaris Program will be to launch on the first crewed flight of Starship. Personally I’m not sure what crazy person looked at those early test flights and said “I want to fly on that,” but I guess Issacman saw something I didn’t.
While a crewed Starship flight is still very far off in SpaceX’s future, the company’s president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said they would like at least 100 launches before that, it will happen eventually.
Elon Musk has a lot of ambition plans for SpaceX’s future, including building a base on the Moon and a self sustaining colony on Mars. Polaris is an extension of that spirit and getting SpaceX ready to do what, once again, many think is impossible.
Quelle: SPACE EXPLORED