Polaris Dawn: SpaceX Launches Billionaire Into Space for First-Ever Private Spacewalk

This image made from a SpaceX video shows the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Sept. 10, 2024. SpaceX via AP

SpaceX on Sept. 10 launched a commercial flight that is slated to travel the farthest from Earth since Apollo 17’s flight in 1972. The Polaris Dawn mission will also mark the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk.

Four people, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, are on the mission.

Using a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX launched the crew from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before dawn.

The Dragon spacecraft later separated from the rocket, the company said. The craft, which has regularly been used to ferry astronauts and supplies between Earth and the International Space Station, is about 27 feet tall with a 13-foot diameter.

The launch was delayed several times due to unfavorable weather, but conditions cleared enough for takeoff on Tuesday.

Isaacman, who is helping pay for the trip along with SpaceX, is being joined by Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon of SpaceX and former Air Force pilot Scott Poteet.

“I think the world is a more interesting place when you can journey among the stars,” Isaacman said in a recent video released by SpaceX. “I believe that a lot of the questions that human beings have asked themselves since the beginning of time are probably out there and we’ve barely scratched the surface, and SpaceX is trying to change that.”

The passengers are shooting for way beyond the International Space Station, an altitude of 870 miles. That would set a new record for the highest altitude for a crewed mission not going to the moon, surpassing the 850-mile record achieved during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the moon have ventured farther.

The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half. Even at this altitude of 435 miles, the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope. The ISS orbits at an altitude of between 200 to 250 miles, while Hubble sits at an altitude of about 320 miles, according to NASA.

Spacewalk

Isaacman and Menon are also planning to become the first private citizens to conduct a spacewalk, though they intend to always keep a hand or foot in contact with the capsule or an attached support structure resembling the top of a pool ladder. The spacewalk is intended to test the SpaceX spacesuit.

SpaceX said the crew will carry out research while in space, including using ultrasound to monitor venous gas emboli, tiny gas bubbles that can form in blood vessels.

The flight is supposed to end with a splashdown off the coast of Florida.

“We’re sending you hugs from the ground,” Launch Control radioed after the crew reached orbit. “May you make history and come home safely.”

Isaacman replied: “We wouldn’t be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX.”

Mission specialist Anna Menon (L), pilot Scott Poteet (2nd L), commander Jared Isaacman (2nd R), and mission specialist Sarah Gillis (R) arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 19, 2024. John Raoux/AP Photo

Isaacman made his fortune with a payment processing company and has an estimated net worth of $2 billion.

It’s the first of three trips that Isaacman bought from Elon Musk two years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The trips are part of SpaceX’s Polaris Program.

“The Polaris Program seeks to demonstrate important operational capabilities that will serve as building blocks to help further human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” the company states on its website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.