Elon Musk-led SpaceX ‘Polaris Dawn’ featuring 1st commercial spacewalk mission delayed again

FLORIDA: The launch of Elon Musk-led company’s private charted spaceflight to launch four civilians into Earth’s orbit for a historic walk in space, the first of its kind, has been delayed again, SpaceX announced on Wednesday.

The launch of ‘Polaris Dawn’ mission initially scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre on Tuesday was delayed for August 28 due to a helium leak. The mission is now delayed again due to predictions of bad weather off the coast of Florida where the crew capsule will splash down in the ocean at the end of the flight, the company said in a post on X.

“Due to unfavorable weather forecasted in Dragon’s splashdown areas off the coast of Florida, we are now standing down from tonight and tomorrow’s Falcon 9 launch opportunities of Polaris Dawn”, Space X said.

Due to unfavorable weather forecasted in Dragon’s splashdown areas off the coast of Florida, we are now standing down from tonight and tomorrow’s Falcon 9 launch opportunities of Polaris Dawn. Teams will continue to monitor weather for favorable launch and return conditions

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 28, 2024

Teams will continue to monitor weather for favorable launch and return conditions, the company said. “Our launch criteria are heavily constrained by forecasted splashdown weather conditions”, billionaire entrepreneur and mission commander Jared Isaacman said in a post on X.

“With no ISS rendezvous and limited life support consumables, we must be absolutely sure of reentry weather before launching. “As of now, conditions are not favorable tonight or tomorrow, so we’ll assess day by day. As Elon (Musk) mentioned, Polaris Dawn is a challenging mission with critical objectives, so we’ll wait for the best opportunity to ensure success,” Isaccman said.

After engineers discovered a leak in a launch pad umbilical that delivers helium to the booster to push propellants to the rocket’s engines, the launch was postponed to August 28.

“Sometimes, the hardest journeys require the most patience, and we’re ready to wait for the right moment”, Isaacman posted on X.

Isaacman is commanding the mission aling with his crewmates, former F-16 pilot Scott Poteet and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis will ride to orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket, inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule which will enter into Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts.

The ‘Polaris Dawn’ misssion is set to last about 5 days once launched into an oval-shaped orbit that extends as high as 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) from Earth. This is higher than what any of the astronauts have flown since the Apollo 17 moon program in the year 1972.

On the third day of their journey, crew members will leave the spacecraft at an altitude of roughly 435 miles (700 km) above Earth, spending up to 20 minutes exposed to the vacuum of space.

Astronauts will be donning and testing the brand-new Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) suits designed which SpaceX said it designed and developed in just two and a half years.

Among the challenges faced by the mission will be venting the cabin to vaccum before opening the hatch since the ship does not have an airlock.

‘Polaris Dawn’ is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program, a human-spaceflight project funded and organized by Isaacman in collaboration with Elon Musk.

Incidentally, Issacman had in the year 2021 financed and commanded the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian commercial flight to orbit operated by SpaceX. (ANI)