Florida, 29 August 2024 (TDI): Due to the unfavorable weather predicted in the splashdown zones off the coast of Florida, SpaceX said on Tuesday that it is forfeiting its plans to launch Polaris Dawn using a Falcon 9 rocket early on Wednesday.
The first spacewalk by a private citizen was expected to open a new era in space research, but SpaceX postponed their historic launch of an all-civilian crew on an orbital trip on August 26.
After a last-minute technical issue, the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Dawn mission—which was originally scheduled to launch early Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—is now aiming for early Wednesday.
On X, Elon Musk’s business posted, “Teams are looking more closely at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical.” While helium is a non-flammable gas that is frequently used to pressurize fuel lines, umbilical are utilized to connect a tower and rocket.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to soar to a maximum altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers)—higher than any crewed flight since the Apollo era more than 50 years ago.
The focal point of the mission will be the first-ever commercial spacewalk, which mission commander Isaacman will lead his four-person crew through while wearing the slick, recently created SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits.
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Mission specialist Sarah Gillis, lead space operations engineer at SpaceX, mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, also a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX, and mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, complete the team.
