The Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to be the first private spacewalk, will take place no earlier than April 2024. This was announced by billionaire Jared Isaacman, the initiator of the mission. According to him, the spacesuits are not ready for it yet.
The Polaris Dawn mission will take place no earlier than April
The first private walk in outer space is postponed until at least April 2024. This was announced in publications on social networks on December 9 by American billionaire Jared Isaacman. According to Jared, he was at SpaceX that day and watched how the spacesuits were being prepared.
The businessman said that their preparation had accelerated and that they should be ready by April. However, this is not an easy task because, unlike those spacesuits that are currently used by SpaceX, the ones necessary for this mission must initially be adapted for use in a vacuum.
In addition, the situation is complicated by the fact that there is simply no airlock on board the SpaceX manned spacecraft, and this problem also needs to be solved somehow. In addition, according to Isaacman, the orbital altitude will be 1400 km during the Polaris Dawn mission to test the new laser communication system. This means that the Crew Dragon spacecraft will be dangerously close to the Van Allen radiation belt at this moment.
Launch delays
This is far from the first postponement of the Polaris Dawn mission, and the further it goes, the more questionable Isaacmann’s idea looks. He announced his plans to organize the first private spacewalk in February 2022, five months after he flew into space as part of the Inspiration 4 mission.
Then it was a matter of the expedition taking place in the fourth quarter of 2022. However, after a few months, it was postponed to the beginning of 2023. Then, for the summer of this year. A few months ago, Isaacman announced that Polaris Dawn would take place in the first quarter of 2024.
And now there are new deadlines and new stories from Isaacman that the spacesuits will be ready on time. At the same time, the program’s website has not published any updates since May. Everything that makes it possible to assert that the program is alive, we know only from the words of the billionaire.
According to spacenews.com
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