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LAUNCH OF POLARIS DAWN PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSION, Sept 10, 2024, KSC, 5:23 am ET

Update, September 10, 2:57 am:  SpaceX has waved off launch at 3:38 am due to weather, but will try at the 5:23 am ET opportunity.  A third opportunity today is at 7:09 am ET.

Update, September 8, 2024:  Weather has delayed the launch since the last update.  SpaceX said late this evening they are targeting Tuesday, September 10, at 3:38 am ET for launch, but weather is only 40% favorable for launch and the weather for landing 5 days later “is a watch item.”


Update, August 27, 10:30 pm ET:  The launch has been scrubbed again due to bad weather in the Dragon splashdown areas near Florida.  The launch will not take place on Wednesday or Thursday.

Mission commander Jared Isaacman explained that it is not the launch weather that’s the problem, but the forecast for landing 5 days later.  Because they do not visit the ISS, they have very limited consumables and must know before they liftoff that they can return in 5 days.


Update, August 26, 8:40 pm ET:  The launch has been delayed again due to a ground-side helium leak.  Next opportunity is Wednesday.  Same time.

“SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, August 28 at 3:38 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of Polaris Dawn to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are two additional launch opportunities within the four-hour window at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET. If needed, backup opportunities are available on Thursday, August 29 at the same times.”

Update, August 25: The launch time is the same as before, 3:38 am ET, with additional opportunities at 5:23 am ET and 7:09 am ET. SpaceX will webcast the launch on its website.  August 28 is a backup date if needed.

Update, August 21: The launch date has slipped a day to August 27 to allow time “for teams to complete preflight checkouts.” The launch time was not provided.


Update, August 19: Launch time is targeted for 3:38 am ET, but the window is open until 7:00 am ET.

Update, August 7:  The new “no earlier than” date is August 26.


Update, July 13: The Falcon 9 has been grounded as officials investigate an upper stage failure on July 11. When it will resume flight and when this mission will take place is unknown. Isaacman expressed confidence in SpaceX and Falcon and said they would launch when the time is right.


Original Entry: The launch of Polaris Dawn is scheduled for no earlier than (NET) July 31, 2024.

The Polaris Program is a series of three commercial space missions paid for by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who also funded the Inspiration4 mission in 2021. That and the Polaris series are private astronaut missions using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and, for the third Polaris flight, Starship, on its first trip to orbit with a crew.

Polaris Dawn will take the four-person private astronaut crew, led by Isaacman, to a higher altitude than any prior Earth-orbiting human spaceflight mission.

In a recent interview with CNBC’s Michael Sheetz, Isaacman said they will initially go into an elliptical orbit 190 x 1200 km, then boost the aopgee to 1400 km all within the first 24 hours of the 5-day mission. By day 3 they will have lowered the apogee to 700 km where Isaacman and Anna Menon will perform the first commercial spacewalk using SpaceX spacesuits.  Crew Dragon does not have an airlock, so the entire spacecraft will have to be depressurized (like the earliest spacewalks) and all four crew will be in spacesuits capable of protecting them from the vacuum of space.

 

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Details

Date:
September 10
Time:
3:00 am - 11:00 pm
Last Updated: Sep 10, 2024 3:26 am ET

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