>During the initial hours of the spaceflight, the crew will seek to fly in a highly elliptical orbit, reaching an altitude as high as 1,400 km (870 miles) above the planet’s surface. This will be the highest Earth-orbit mission ever flown by humans and the farthest any person has flown from Earth since the Apollo Moon landings more than half a century ago. This will expose the crew to a not insignificant amount of radiation, and they will collect biological data to assess harms.
>The *Resilience* spacecraft will then descend toward a more circular orbit about 700 km above the Earth’s surface. Assuming a launch on Tuesday, the crew will don four spacesuits on Friday and open the hatch to the vacuum of space. Then Isaacman, followed by mission specialist Sarah Gillis, will each briefly climb out of the spacecraft into space.
>Isaacman’s interest in performing the first private spacewalk accelerated, by years, SpaceX’s development of these spacesuits. This really is just the first generation of the suit, and SpaceX is likely to continue iterating toward a spacesuit that has its own portable life support system (PLSS). This is the “backpack” on a traditional spacesuit that allows NASA astronauts to perform spacewalks untethered to the International Space Station.
Spoiler it’s been delayed by 24+ hours due to a helium leak in the quick disconnect umbilical hose. That fills the onboard helium tanks from the ground facilities.
Southern-Ask241 on
SpaceX publicist Berger suggests this is not a space tourism mission. How is this not a space tourism mission? You can dress it up all you want with “science”, but at the end of the day, a billionaire, who unlike NASA astronauts did not earn his position through merit, is paying for the privilege of a spacewalk.
ogodilovejudyalvarez on
Nice PR, but the most adventurous spaceflight since Apollo would be a crewed mission to Mars
Silvermoonluca on
Adventurous because the manufacturers of the craft are unsafe?
6 Comments
From an article on the Polaris Dawn mission:
>During the initial hours of the spaceflight, the crew will seek to fly in a highly elliptical orbit, reaching an altitude as high as 1,400 km (870 miles) above the planet’s surface. This will be the highest Earth-orbit mission ever flown by humans and the farthest any person has flown from Earth since the Apollo Moon landings more than half a century ago. This will expose the crew to a not insignificant amount of radiation, and they will collect biological data to assess harms.
>The *Resilience* spacecraft will then descend toward a more circular orbit about 700 km above the Earth’s surface. Assuming a launch on Tuesday, the crew will don four spacesuits on Friday and open the hatch to the vacuum of space. Then Isaacman, followed by mission specialist Sarah Gillis, will each briefly climb out of the spacecraft into space.
>Isaacman’s interest in performing the first private spacewalk accelerated, by years, SpaceX’s development of these spacesuits. This really is just the first generation of the suit, and SpaceX is likely to continue iterating toward a spacesuit that has its own portable life support system (PLSS). This is the “backpack” on a traditional spacesuit that allows NASA astronauts to perform spacewalks untethered to the International Space Station.
EDIT: [Delay to Wednesday because of helium leak](https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1828225406996287814)
Nope. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/spacex-polaris-launch-postponed-helium-leak-detected-rcna167168
Spoiler it’s been delayed by 24+ hours due to a helium leak in the quick disconnect umbilical hose. That fills the onboard helium tanks from the ground facilities.
SpaceX publicist Berger suggests this is not a space tourism mission. How is this not a space tourism mission? You can dress it up all you want with “science”, but at the end of the day, a billionaire, who unlike NASA astronauts did not earn his position through merit, is paying for the privilege of a spacewalk.
Nice PR, but the most adventurous spaceflight since Apollo would be a crewed mission to Mars
Adventurous because the manufacturers of the craft are unsafe?