The Polaris Dawn mission, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, saw its four private astronauts, including retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a series of delays. The mission, initially scheduled for the end of August, was postponed due to technical issues and poor weather conditions. Among the objectives of the mission is the first-ever commercial spacewalk, to be conducted from a Dragon capsule, aiming to reach an altitude of approximately 870 miles from Earth. Polaris Dawn is the first of three human spaceflight missions under the Polaris Program, testing SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity space suit during a spacewalk at an elliptical orbit about 435 miles above the Earth’s surface.
