The World's 1st Private Spacewalk by Polaris Dawn Crew

The Polaris Dawn program is planning to launch a crewed spacecraft for the very first time in the month of March next year, where Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew will spend up to five days in orbit which will feature the very first spacewalk conducted as part of a private mission.

Obtaining a new orbital altitude record

This is a pattern that the Polaris Dawn crew hopes to break by doing their spacewalk outside of a very small spacecraft called the SpaceX Crew Dragon that is circling the Earth. The crew will next go on to achieve an orbital height that is unprecedented.

According to Anna Menon of SpaceX, who is also a part of the Polaris Dawn crew, there is a significant amount of new work that is being done to enable these efforts. The crew of Dragon spacecraft will need enhancements to its life support systems in order for the team to be successful in reaching this high objective.

According to Menon, the development of the suit that is taking place for this journey is going to be of great assistance to us in learning, and we will be able to build on this when we travel to the moon and eventually when we go to Mars.

Sarah Gillis, another member of SpaceX who is also a participant on the mission, stated that this is a development plan, and as part of that, this is a completely new training program that we are designing. I have no doubt that we will pick up a lot of useful information along the road. The team plans to test communications with SpaceX's Starlink satellite system while flying Crew Dragon in an orbit that has an apogee of 1,400 kilometers. This would be the greatest altitude ever achieved by a crewed mission in Earth orbit.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Polaris Dawn mission from historic Launch Complex 39A. (Image credit: Polaris Dawn)

Details about the SpaceX Polaris Dawn Launch Schedule for December

There have been recent developments on the allegations that surround SpaceX's Polaris Dawn, as Space News reports that there are plans for launching the mission in early 2023.

In a tweet that was published earlier this month, Jared Isaacman described the preparations he and the crew of Polaris Dawn have really been making for the upcoming launch as well as the commercial spacewalk that is scheduled to take place.

After boarding the Crew Dragon for a launch, the astronauts for the mission would spend a total of five days in orbit and then execute the very first commercial spacewalk that the general public has ever seen.

While some missions focus on spacewalks that take place outside of or far from the International Space Station (ISS), the spacewalk that is part of the Polaris Dawn mission will take place at an orbital height that is rather high and unprecedented.

Specifics of the Polaris Dawn Mission

The crewed launch for the Polaris Dawn mission will be the first of the 3 independent ones that Isaacman will conduct. By carrying out studies in space, SpaceX intends to improve their understanding of how future long-duration spaceflights would affect the human body.

The website of Polaris Dawn Mission states that the research crew will examine a variety of themes - studies on the impact of space radiation on individual biological systems and the application of ultrasonography to track, identify, and measure venous gas emboli connected to human decompression sickness, and more.

In order to carry out the scientific study that it had planned, SpaceX worked in conjunction with the Translational Study Center for Space Health, BioServe Space Technologies there at University of Colorado Boulder, as well as the Space Innovations Lab. The most important accomplishments, on the other hand, will be the first corporate spacewalk as well as the testing of beam communications via Starlink in space.