The historic SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which includes the first-ever commercial spacewalk, will launch tonight from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Four private astronauts, three of whom have never been to space before, will travel to the highest altitude yet reached by a SpaceX Crew Dragon and perform experiments into human health in space.
The mission has been repeatedly delayed because of a confluence of issues including weather and the FAA temporarily grounding the Falcon 9 rocket following the failure of a booster during landing. But now the go-ahead has been given, and the company is readying for a launch in a few hours’ time. Launch is scheduled for 3:38 a.m. ET on September 10. If necessary, there are also two other possible launch times at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET., and more opportunities on Wednesday.
“During their multi-day mission to orbit, Dragon and the crew will endeavor to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown since the Apollo program and participate in the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) by commercial astronauts wearing SpaceX-developed EVA suits,” SpaceX writes. “They will also conduct 36 research studies and experiments from 31 partner institutions designed to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight, and test Starlink laser-based communications in space.”
The mission will mark the highest altitude ever reached by the Crew Dragon and its farthest distance from Earth. Polaris Dawn will last for five days and see the astronauts stay in orbit rather than docking with the International Space Station (ISS). Instead, they will orbit at up to 870 miles from the planet’s surface, three times the altitude of the ISS, and study the radiation levels experienced at these altitudes. The spacewalk will be performed at an altitude of 435 miles, and the crew will be fitted with radiation monitoring sensors and will also test out a new SpaceX spacesuit.
SpaceX will be live-streaming the launch, with coverage beginning just after midnight ET (9 p.m. PT) ahead of the 3:38 a.m. ET (12:30 a.m. PT) launch.
You can watch on SpaceX’s website, or on SpaceX’s X account, which will also carry text updates throughout the mission.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.