SpaceX: First-Ever Commercial Spacewalk Set to Launch on August 27

• SpaceX's first-ever commercial spacewalk mission, the Polaris Dawn program, will launch on August 27.
• It'll be a 5-day event, consisting of the spacewalking activity on day 3.
• The crew consists of 4 people, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is personally funding this mission.

SpaceX's landmark mission - the Polaris Dawn program - is set to launch at 3:38 a.m. EDT on August 27 (Tuesday). SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk took to his X account on August 22 to announce the news.

This will be the first spacewalk by a commercial company and the furthest from Earth anyone has traveled in over half a century!" - Elon Musk

You can also see the teaser of the mission shared by SpaceX's official account in his post.

It's worth noting that this is not only the first-ever private spacewalk arranged by a commercial company - as Musk said - but also the first time since the Apollo program (which was 50+ years ago) that someone will travel this far from the Earth.

The Polaris Dawn mission was initially set to launch on August 26. However, it was later decided to postpone it by a day to give the team more time to complete the pre-flight checks.More about the Mission & the Crew

A Falcon 9 rocket will launch on August 27 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the crew will board the Dragon capsule. It's a 5-day mission, and the spacewalk, formally known as the Extravehicular Activity (EVA), is scheduled for the third day.

Now, speaking of the crew, it'll be a 4-person team headed by US billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is also personally financing the mission. The exact amount of investment hasn't been revealed, but it's expected to be hundreds of millions.

This won't be his first flight to outer space, either. In 2021, he had his first self-funded space mission during which he spent three days orbiting Earth with three other people.

None of those people had any prior spaceflight experience, either, so it's safe to say that Isaacman is in a pole position to lead this mission as well.

The other three members are:

• Isaacman's friend Scott Poteet, who is also the pilot of this mission. He's a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel.
• SpaceX Lead Space Operations Engineer Sarah Gillis, who trained Isaacman for Inspiration4.
• Anna Menon - another SpaceX Lead Space Operations Engineer - and who previously worked for NASA.

All four members of the team have been rigorously training for this mission for the last 2 years. Roughly 2,000 hours in a simulator, centrifuge sessions, skydiving training, scuba diving training, and climbing the Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador have gone into preparation.

Objectives of the Mission

The team will be conducting around 40 experiments during the mission. Apart from that, there are several milestones to achieve. Their top 3 objectives are:

• To reach an altitude of 1,400 km (870 miles). This is the furthest distance a space crew has traveled since the Apollo lunar missions. This will also make Menon and Gillis the first women to travel so far from the Earth.
• The second objective is to conduct a laser communication test between the ship and SpaceX's Starlink satellites.
• Spacewalk is the third objective. Once they're in the lower orbit, they will step out in pairs, one by one, to venture out of the capsule. The spacewalk will be broadcast live - exciting, to say the least! Note that the company designed its first generation of spacesuits specifically for this walk.

What Does the Crew Have to Say about the Mission?

Issacman agrees that there are some risks associated with it, which is usual for any space mission. However, he says that all the risk is worth it.

He believes that this mission has the potential to change the trajectory of humankind and space travel forever.

There's so much to go out and explore and discover along the way." - Jared Isaacman

Menon is also super excited about this mission. She shared that she has been waiting for an opportunity like this for years, so she's really looking forward to the experience.

Related: NASA to pay SpaceX $843 million to destroy the International Space Station in 2030

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