SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn spacecraft completes space flight: How it happened

The first human spacewalk has been successfully tested, and four passengers aboard SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission are under outdoor conditions for about an hour.

The four-person crew will now begin their journey back to Earth aboard the spacecraft, with a blast-off expected from the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday.

How did the atmosphere go?

The first commercial space shuttle was delayed for about two and a half hours, with the space station starting at around 10:50 GMT after the launch hatch. .

Before they exited, the pressure inside the capsule was gradually adjusted as part of the “pre-breathing” process that prepares the astronauts’ bodies. When the hatch was opened, the spacecraft was moving in an elliptical orbit 736km (457 miles) above the Earth at a speed of more than 25,000km/h (at least 15,500mph).

When billionaire mission director Jared Isaacman opened the hatch and ascended to transmit the first view of the planet from the outside, SpaceX’s crew on Earth erupted into applause. He started to move the limbs that he had memorized beforehand to try to walk in the outer space.

After several minutes of his body outside the vacuum, 41-year-old Isaacman withdrew and was replaced by 30-year-old SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, who did the same, turning to the side. another flashed his limbs to see if the new Space Suit, designed to protect the crew from the harsh environment, would hold up.

They were the only ones to pass through the void, protected by a 12-foot (3.6-meter) tarmac attached to the spacecraft. They used the Skywalker, a hatch design with hand-held assistive devices developed by the company, but it didn’t come out completely.

Two other crew members, former United States Air Force chief Scott “Kidd” Poteet and 38-year-old SpaceX engineer and medical officer Anna Menon, remained in the Dragon capsule but they are exposed to a vacancy and his travel and transfer duties to do, as well as supporting the other two members.

Orbital sunsets from Dragon pic.twitter.com/maDHdiSxNH

– Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024

None of the workers developed severe symptoms, which can include severe motion sickness that can be fatal in extreme cases due to the pressure difference.

The crew also conducted a number of experiments, including inter-satellite laser communication between the spacecraft and Space X’s Starlink constellation.

What does SpaceX hope to achieve?

After spending more than two years preparing and training for the physical and mental stress of the challenge, the astronauts’ bodies were finally exposed to the conditions of space on Thursday.

The main goal of the Polaris program is to develop and test technologies that will allow SpaceX to advance toward its long-term goal of achieving space travel and creating habitats on other planets. , especially Mars.

The main purpose of the dangerous space was to test the company’s new Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suits that were designed and developed specifically for this purpose over a period of two years.

SpaceX wants to improve the design of the suits to accommodate a wider variety of future astronauts of different body types and ages at a lower cost as private space travel aims to expand.

SpaceX’s suits do not include the Primary Life Support System (PLSS), a set of backpack-like support equipment worn by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) that allows them to float freely in space and perform complex missions. outside. space station. The disconnected suit meant that the crew received life support (oxygen) through long hoses that were attached to their spacecraft.

The company hopes to learn from the effects of conditions such as high altitude and radiation during the experimental work.

Laser and satellite communications inspections will allow for improved connectivity in the future.

How important is the Polaris Dawn mission?

Polaris Dawn’s five-day journey to Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, which began about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) above Earth, began at 09:23 GMT on Tuesday, after several weather delays delayed the rocket’s launch for weeks. .

The booster of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which had ejected from the spacecraft after its launch, successfully landed a few minutes after its launch on Tuesday on the SpaceX platform called Just Read The Instructions sitting in the Atlantic Ocean.

The platform is a modified boat that has been equipped to safely receive the Falcon boosters at sea after high-speed trips because they cannot carry enough fuel to stay at their launch site.

Polaris Dawn has already made history, having reached a maximum altitude of at least 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), surpassing the record set by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966 which reached 1,373km.

It was also the farthest space humans have traveled since the 1972 Apollo mission to the moon, and it is the farthest space a woman has ever traveled.

Dragon makes a spacewalk in an elliptical orbit of ~ 190 x 700 km today, after reaching a maximum altitude of 1,408.1 km on the second day of the mission and breaking the Earth-orbit record set by Gemini 11 more than 50 years ago past when the plane arrived. 1,373 km

– SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024

Isaacman, CEO and founder of credit card company Shift4, bought Polaris Dawn – for an undisclosed price – as one of three space missions from SpaceX founder Elon Musk in 2022 .This was shortly after Isaacman returned from his first private flight with the company. which raised money for the US’s leading children’s cancer hospital.

Who else is on the scene now?

According to NASA, there are currently 19 human missions in orbit around Earth, an all-time record for humanity. They include seven crew members aboard the ISS, a three-person crew of the Soyuz mission to the ISS crew transition, three astronauts aboard China’s Tiangong space station and two Boeing test pilots. Starliner going to the ISS are there. temporarily stranded and will return to Earth in early 2025.

According to some experts, this project is against the Outer Space Treaty which was signed by world governments in 1967 during the Cold War. The article states that the activities of non-governmental organizations in the outer space must be authorized and controlled by the state party. Polaris Dawn is not a NASA mission, nor is it controlled by the US government.