SpaceX rocket lifts off with crew set to attempt first commercial spacewalk

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches Polaris Dawn mission, aiming for the highest Earth orbit with a commercial crew.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched the Polaris Dawn mission from Kennedy Space Center at United states' Florida on Tuesday. The mission will last up to five days and will attempt a spacewalk, first by a commercial crew.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches Polaris Dawn mission

The crew will aim to fly higher than any previous Dragon mission and attempt to reach the highest Earth orbit ever. They will also be the first to test Starlink’s laser-based communications in space.

Falcon 9 will place Dragon in an elliptical orbit of 190 x 1,200 km, where it will orbit the Earth eight times before raising itself to an apogee of 1,400 km. This will be the highest humans have traveled in Earth’s orbit since the completion of the Apollo programme over 50 years ago.

After six orbits at 1,400 km, Dragon will lower itself back to a 190 x 700 km elliptical orbit in preparation for the first spacewalk from Dragon.

Who are the crew members?

Jared Isaacman, 41, a pilot and billionaire founder of Shift4, is leading and funding the Polaris mission, just as he did for his previous Inspiration4 flight with SpaceX in 2021. The exact cost of the missions is unknown, but it is expected to be in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Isaacman is joined by Scott Poteet, 50, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and two SpaceX engineers: Sarah Gillis, 30, and Anna Menon, 38. Isaacman and Gillis will conduct a spacewalk, tethered by an oxygen line, while Poteet and Menon stay inside the spacecraft.

This mission is the first in Isaacman's Polaris programme, which will include a future Crew Dragon mission and a flight on SpaceX's Starship rocket. The crew will also participate in scientific experiments to study the effects of space on the human body, building on previous research from astronauts on the International Space Station.