August 26, 2024
Polaris Dawn will feature the first-ever private spacewalk.
SpaceX is now targeting Aug. 26 for the launch of Polaris Dawn, a crewed flight to Earth orbit that will feature the first-ever private spacewalk.
The news, which the Polaris Dawn team announced today (Aug. 7) via a post on X, firms up a previously vague window; the most recent target for the groundbreaking mission was mid-August.
Polaris Dawn will send four people to Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The crew of the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission pose in front of a fighter jet. (Image credit: Polaris Program/John Kraus)
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
a free-flying mission that does not link up with the International Space Station (ISS). Polaris Dawn will circle our planet at an altitude of about 435 miles (700 kilometers), taking the crew farther from Earth than any mission since the Apollo era.
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