FILE VIDEO: Crew-6 is on their way to the International Space Station. Everything went as planned early Thursday morning for four astronauts finally starting their 6-month mission in space. Fox News Correspondent Phil Keating has the latest.
HOUSTON — The Polaris Dawn crew was recently at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and SpaceX headquarters, completing critical testing of SpaceX’s new spacesuits ahead of their launch this summer.
These newly developed extravehicular activity (EVA) suits will allow the crew to conduct the first private spacewalk with all four crew members exposed to the vacuum of space.
Funded by American businessman Jared Isaacman, the Polaris Dawn mission includes Scott Poteet and SpaceX employees Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
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The mission is expected to launch on a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon on a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than July 31. However, the Falcon 9, SpaceX’s workhorse rocket, is currently grounded from launching while the company and the Federal Aviation Administration complete a mishap investigation of a rare mission failure on July 11.
When it happens, the Polaris Dawn mission will launch from Florida during a five-hour launch window.
The crew will attempt the first commercial extravehicular activity, also known as a spacewalk, at an orbit about 430 miles above Earth. Isaacman and Gillis will exit the Dragon spacecraft while Menon and Poteet remain inside the capsule. With the airlock open, all four crew members must wear pressurized spacesuits because they will all be exposed to the vacuum of space. Isaacman said the spacewalk will last an estimated 2 hours.
To accommodate these mission goals, SpaceX teams developed a new EVA suit.
The Polaris Dawn team recently shared an update after completing testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The team used a JSC test chamber, which previously supported testing America’s first spacesuits and spacecraft during the Gemini and Apollo programs. The facilities are part of the National Register of Historic Places and remain in use today.
“It was a profound feeling for our crew to conduct operations in the same vacuum chambers that supported the Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960s,” Isaacman said in a statement.
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On Sunday, Isaacman wrote on X that the crew completed their final mission training at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Polaris Dawn EVA spacesuit acceptance testing at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
(Polaris Program / John Kraus)
“We thanked everyone we could find, placed our mission patch on the simulator & signed it. It is always possible we could be back, but for now, we are ready,” Isaacman said.
SpaceX and Polaris Dawn leaders have not commented on how the Falcon 9 mishap investigation could delay the mission.