Polaris Dawn will push the boundaries of SpaceX’s human spaceflight program – here’s how to watch the launch live

Update 27.08.: Polaris Dawn’s launch has been delayed by one day and is now scheduled for Wednesday, August 28, after a helium leak was discovered before liftoff.

Update 28.08.: The mission was delayed again, this time due to adverse weather conditions – not at launch, as is usually the case, but during the planned splashdown at the end of the mission. As Jared Isaacman explained on X, “Our launch criteria is highly dependent on the forecast weather conditions for splashdown.” With no rendezvous with the ISS and limited life support consumables, we need to be absolutely certain of the weather conditions for reentry before launch. At this point, conditions are not favorable either tonight or tomorrow, so we will assess the situation day by day.“

After a nearly three-year hiatus, Jared Isaacman is returning to space. The billionaire entrepreneur flew into orbit for the first time on the Inspiration4 mission, which made history because its crew was made up entirely of private citizens rather than professional astronauts. But with this next mission, Polaris Dawn, he and his mission partner SpaceX have set their sights even higher.

Literally: Polaris Dawn will fly farther than any other mission with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to date, including gliding through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt for the first time since the days of the Apollo missions.

Things will get even more daring for the four-person crew when they reach an altitude of around 700 kilometers above Earth and attempt the first commercial spacewalk. During this journey, they will test Dragon’s ability to conduct extravehicular activities (EVAs) and try out SpaceX’s EVA suits for the first time.

This is not just a commercial trip sponsored by Isaacman, but a joint mission with SpaceX, although the two have never publicly discussed the costs.

This mission, as well as the two subsequent missions planned as part of the Polaris Dawn program – including one that will be the first crewed flight of Starship – “are designed to accelerate SpaceX’s vision of enabling life on multiple planets,” Isaacman explained during a press conference earlier this month.

The suits are particularly important to SpaceX’s goal of establishing the first permanent bases on the moon and Mars. The bases “will require millions of spacesuits,” Polaris Dawn’s website says. The EVA suits the Polaris Dawn crew will wear are an evolution of the intravehicular activity suits worn by astronauts in Dragon capsules, but have been designed with a number of improvements to make them suitable for the vacuum of space. These include boots made from the same thermal material as Dragon’s hull, a head-up display for use during spacewalks, and improved articulated joints.

The Dragon spacecraft itself has also been improved. All four crew members will wear the EVA spacesuits, although only two crew members will actually exit the spacecraft, as the interior will be depressurized before the walk. To make this possible, SpaceX has improved the spacecraft’s life support systems by adding more oxygen to the system to supply all four suits, improving environmental monitoring, and incorporating an entirely new nitrogen pressure equalization system.

Like NASA astronauts’ spacewalks on the ISS, Polaris Dawn crew members will connect their suits to life support umbilical cords while outside the spacecraft. To provide additional support to crew members, SpaceX has installed mobility aids such as grab handles around the hatch to help them exit and re-enter. The entire operation, from venting the Dragon to repressurizing it, will take about two hours, with the two crew members actually being outside the spacecraft for 15 to 20 minutes.

The Polaris Dawn mission will also test laser-based Starlink communications in space, specifically the ability to connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation from a spacecraft in orbit. The crew will also conduct a range of scientific experiments and research using themselves as test subjects. For example, they will shoot through the high-energy Van Allen Belt and measure the effects of radiation on human health.

“We can learn a lot from [that environment] in terms of human health science and research,” Isaacman said in that earlier press conference. “If we get to Mars one day, we would like to come back and be healthy enough to tell people about it. So I think it’s worth getting some exposure in that environment.”

Isaacman will be accompanied by three others: mission pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and two SpaceX employees: mission specialist Sarah Gillis, an engineer and astronaut trainer, and mission specialist Anna Menon, a paramedic who is also an engineer and leads the company’s mission control for its flights.

Polaris Dawn is now scheduled to lift off on August 28 on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The launch window is four hours, beginning at the same time as the originally planned launch at 3:38 a.m. EDT. The mission will last up to five days. At its furthest point, the spacecraft will carry the crew up to 875 miles (1,400 kilometers) from Earth. At the end of the mission, the crew will splash down off the coast of Florida.

The launch will be streamed live on X; follow it by clicking the link here.

William Gerstenmaier, a former NASA employee and now vice president of flight reliability at SpaceX, said during the press conference, “It’s time to explore.”