The first private spacewalk in the history of astronautics as part of the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, scheduled for early August, was again postponed, this time until mid-to-late August, due to SpaceX’s busy flight schedule. The Crew-9 crew will be sent to the ISS first, followed by the first of three flights of the Polaris Dawn mission. This was announced at a SpaceX press conference held on July 26.
The mission of Polaris Dawn as imagined by an artist. Image source: SpaceX
«There’s a lot going on at the ISS right now,” Sarah Walker, director of flight operations for SpaceX’s Dragon, said at a press conference. “We have decided to launch the Crew-9 mission as our next [astronaut] mission and are ready to launch Polaris Dawn in late summer once we have met those commitments.” She then explained that “at the end of summer” meant August. Since the SpaceX Crew-9 flight will not take place until August 18, the Polaris Dawn mission will take place in the remaining two weeks of the last month of summer.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman. Initially, the first ever commercial spacewalk was supposed to take place in December 2021, but due to technical problems it had to be postponed. Subsequently, the mission was repeatedly postponed due to difficulties arising with the modification of standard spacesuits and the need to modernize the Crew Dragon capsule to ensure the possibility of depressurization and subsequent restoration of pressure.
In addition to Isaacman, the Polaris Dawn crew will include pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both SpaceX engineers. .
Previously, Isaacman organized the private SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, which included an orbital flight on September 16, 2021, by the Crew Dragon spacecraft with a crew of four non-astronauts. The SpaceX Inspiration4 mission was carried out as part of Isaacman’s campaign to raise funds for a children’s cancer hospital.