SpaceX has released photos showing two Crew Dragon spacecraft prepared for launch. They will be involved in the upcoming missions Polaris Dawn and Crew-9.
Polaris Dawn launch date
Polaris Dawn is a private mission funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman. He already flew into space on Crew Dragon in 2022. His second flight poses a much more ambitious challenge. Crew Dragon will be launched into orbit with an apogee of 1,400 kilometers, a record for manned missions. There the spacecraft will pass close to the Earth’s inner radiation belt. Therefore, the goal of many of the mission’s experiments will be to study the effects of elevated radiation levels on astronauts’ health.
The second strategic objective of the mission is to organize the first private spacewalk. Isaacman will be in attendance, as well as mission specialist Sarah Gillis. The operation will take place at an altitude of 500 kilometers, which is comparable to the Hubble telescope’s orbital altitude. New spacesuits created by SpaceX will be used for the first time to go into space.
Recently, the Polaris Dawn mission finally got an official launch date. It will be headed into space on August 27.
Crew-9 launch date
The NASA-funded Crew-9 mission is the exact opposite of Polaris Dawn. This is a standard flight, the purpose of which is to rotate the ISS crew. It is scheduled for September 24.
For the moment, the main intrigue with the Crew-9 flight has to do with the number of astronauts that will be on Crew Dragon during the launch. The mission’s crew consists of four people, but it can be reduced to two if NASA decides that the Starliner craft cannot be used to return astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to Earth. In that case, they will have to use Crew Dragon. NASA is expected to make a decision on this issue next week.
