The Crew Dragon spacecraft will enter an elliptical orbit around Earth at a distance of 1,400 km, the farthest humans have ventured since the Apollo Moon program.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Polaris Dawn mission from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA on September 10, 2024 – (Photo: Reuters).
On September 10 (U.S. time), SpaceX’s improved Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four private astronauts was launched into space, initiating the Polaris Dawn mission, which lasts five days. The mission aims to test new spacesuit designs and conduct the first spacewalks by private astronauts.
The crew consists of one billionaire entrepreneur, one retired fighter pilot, and two SpaceX employees, launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This marks the fifth and most daring private mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
After a few minutes in space, the spacecraft will enter an elliptical orbit around Earth, coming as close as 190 km and as far as 1,400 km – the farthest distance humans have ventured since the conclusion of the U.S. Apollo Moon program in 1972.
On the third day of the journey, the astronauts will perform a spacewalk from an altitude of 700 km, lasting 20 minutes.
Previously, only highly trained government astronauts conducted spacewalks.
There have been approximately 270 spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS) since its establishment in 2000 and 16 spacewalks by Chinese astronauts on the Tiangong space station.
