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SpaceX on Tuesday finally launched its Polaris Dawn rocket, setting the stage for the first-ever private space walk after weeks of delays due to bad weather.
The Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket took to the air from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:23 a.m. ET. After stage separation, the rocket’s first stage landed on SpaceX’s “Just Read the Instructions” droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the aerospace firm.
The mission’s main star is billionaire Jared Isaacman, who founded the payments company Shift4 (FOUR+1.26%) and has been to space with SpaceX twice before. Mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, mission specialist Sarah Gillis, and retired Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, are also on board.
“Our collective interest in space should neither be too big to fail nor too costly to succeed,” the crew said in a statement posted on X (META+2.35%), the social media platform owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. “It should be an enduring effort to unlock the mysteries of the universe and in the process, make life better here on Earth.
The crew rode into space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, strapped into the company’s Crew Dragon capsule. Dragon — which can be tracked here on SpaceX’s website — and its crew aim to reach the highest Earth orbit flow since NASA’s Apollo program ended in the 1970s, as well as the first-ever space walk performed by commercial astronauts.
The space walk is scheduled for 2:23 a.m. ET on Thursday, with a backup opportunity penciled in for Friday at the same time. A live webcast will start about an hour before Isaacson attempts the space walk on SpaceX’s X account, as well as its website.
The crew will also conduct 36 experiments submitted by 31 partner institutions, including the U.S. Air Force Academy and John Hopkins University. Those experiments are “designed to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight,” and test telecommunications firm Starlink’s technology in space. Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX.
“There are launches and then there are LAUNCHES!!! Hard to describe the blood, sweat and tears that got the Polaris Program crew to orbit today,” Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president overseeing launches, wrote on X. “All focus is now on safely completing the mission objectives, including the first ever commercial spacewalk, before bringing the astronauts home.”