The historic Polaris Dawn mission carrying space tourists was originally scheduled to launch on August 26, but the company responsible for it, SpaceX, moved it up a day to conduct additional pre-flight checks. After a helium leak, the launch had to be postponed another day, and now the mission is delayed for several more days due to unfavorable weather conditions.
Image source: x.com/SpaceX
«Due to adverse weather conditions forecast for the Dragon splashdown areas off the coast of Florida, we are canceling the Falcon 9 launch of Polaris Dawn today and tomorrow. “Specialists will continue to monitor the weather in anticipation of favorable launch and return conditions,” SpaceX said on social media X.
The Polaris Dawn mission plans to send four people into Earth orbit in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket. The crew includes Commander Jared Isaacman, who is funding the mission; pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force; as well as mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, SpaceX engineers.
This will be a historic mission for several reasons. Isaacman and Gillies will conduct the first spacewalk in the history of commercial missions; In addition, the Dragon ship will rise to a record altitude of 1,400 km. SpaceX has not announced a new planned launch date, but if it definitely does not take place on August 28 and 29, it will happen on August 30 or later. Poteet, Gillies and Menon will be in space for the first time, while Isaacman was already in orbit in September 2021 as part of the Inspiration4 mission. He has now secured funding for the five-day Polaris Dawn and two additional missions after that.