The Polaris Program

[Yazata]

Corey Bass Polaris Dawn spacewalk video --

A space program run not by politicians and bureaucrats, but by visionary engineers, space enthusiasts and science fiction nuts

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xvxeOYcryT0

[Yazata]

The Polaris Dawn crew has just completed acceptance testing of their new mission EVA spacesuits in the vacuum chamber at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Unfortunately, their mission, previously penciled in for July 31, is on indefinite hold while Falcon-9 remains grounded because of the second stage relight failure on a recent Starlink launch. Neither SpaceX, NASA or the FAA want to take any chances with the rocket that remains America's primary ride for human spaceflight.

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[Yazata]

It looks like Polaris Dawn has been shifted forward. It's now NET August 26!

My guess is that this shift is the result of Crew-9 being pushed back to September 24, due to the ongoing Starliner difficulties at the ISS, which creates an opening at the pad at Cape Canaveral.

https://x.com/PolarisProgram/status/1821260140210745531

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nsNS

[Yazata]

Polaris Dawn, the first all-private spacewalk mission, is set to launch from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 3:38 AM EDT/12:38 AM PDT on Monday August 26.

Booster will be B1083 on its fourth flight. Booster recovery will be on one of the SpaceX 'droneships' (unsure which one). The capsule will be the heavily modified Crew Dragon Resilience.

Mission duration will be up to five days and will feature several orbit changes in addition to the space walk. Orbit will be elliptical with a relatively low perigee of 190km. Highest apogee will be 1,400 km, which is high for a crewed low-Earth-orbit flight and will take Polaris Dawn briefly into the Van Allen radiation belt each orbit. One of the mission objectives is to explore the radiation environment for human spaceflight. The spacewalk will take place in a 190km/700 km orbit below the belt and will be the first to use the new SpaceX EVA suits.

I believe that the flight will be extensively live-streamed, as one of the mission objectives is to test out Dragon's laser communication with the Starlink network.

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Arrival at Kennedy Space Center

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Prelaunch press conference in a hanger at KSC. The guy on the left is Bill Gerstenmeier ('Gerst') the former NASA Associate Administrator in charge of human spaceflight, now at SpaceX.

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And be sure to watch Corey's beautiful and moving Polaris Dawn video render up at the top of this page.

[Yazata]

Polaris Dawn has just been pushed back to Tuesday August 27.

SpaceX says:

"Targeting Tuesday, August 27 for launch of Polaris Dawn, the first of the @PolarisProgram’s three human spaceflight missions designed to advance the future of spaceflight.

The new date allows additional time for teams to complete preflight checkouts ahead of next week’s launch."

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Dual Dragons!

SpaceX photo showing the Polaris Dawn Dragon (left) and NASA's Crew Nine Dragon (right) being readied for crewed flight, in one of SpaceX's Hangers at Cape Canaveral.

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And here's the Polaris Dawn crew in a hanger where they signed their names on the booster (B1083) that will hurl them into space next week. I'm assuming that's their Dragon against the far wall.

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[Yazata]

The Polaris Dawn rocket is erect at Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral in anticipation of its launch on Tuesday August 27. The 'droneship' ASOG and its support ship Go Cosmos left Port Canaveral today, headed out into the Atlantic for booster recovery.

Great sunset shot by SpaceX

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[Yazata]

They completed a static fire of B1083 and conducted a dry dress launch rehearsal last night.

Everything is currently on track for launch early Tuesday morning

Great little one-minute Polaris Dawn video by SpaceX - lots of views of the crew in their sleek new SpaceX EVA (spacewalking) suits, so very different than the NASA and Russian EVA suits designed way back in the 1960's.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1826401360776232989

[Yazata]

The Polaris Dawn launch tonight has officially been scrubbed. Reason in a ground-side helium leak (!) in the quick-disconnect umbilical. Both the Dragon and the Falcon rocket remain healthy. The next launch opportunity is Wednesday August 28.

I was looking forward to watching the launch tonight...

When they heard it was a helium leak, people on X inevitably started making jokes about letting Boeing technicians onto the pad.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/...olarisdawn

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1828225406996287814

https://x.com/Gillis_SarahE/status/1828228421035458568

[Yazata]

Polaris Dawn appears to be on track for launch tonight. 3:38 AM EDT, 12:38 AM PDT

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/...olarisdawn

[Yazata]

Scrubbed again!!

This time the rocket, capsule and ground support are fine, but weather is deteriorating downrange where the capsule would come down in the event of an in-flight abort. So the Polaris Dawn launch is off for tonight and tomorrow night as well. A new launch date will be announced soon.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/...olarisdawn