Billionaire space-walk flight on SpaceX rocket hit with delays

A SpaceX rocket set to blast off on a mission to reach a new milestone in human space flight — the first walk in space by private citizens — was delayed again Wednesday, this time by the weather.

The Falcon 9 rocket had been set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center for a five-day mission Tuesday but was delayed for 24 hours due to a helium leak in a launch pad hose that pumps helium into its engines. Unfavorable conditions forecast off the coast of Florida for the splashdown prompted the new delay.

SpaceX said, “Teams will continue to monitor weather for favorable launch and return conditions.”

The rocket will carry mission commander Jared Isaacman, a fintech billionaire, and three other crew members, including two SpaceX employees. They will reach the highest Earth orbit since the Apollo program.

Here’s what to know about the Polaris Dawn mission:

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Why is this mission such a big deal?

The crew is expected to carry out the first commercial space walk during its time in orbit, testing a new generation of mobile space suits that SpaceX says will be necessary to colonize the moon and Mars. The sleek Extravehicular Activity suits have been in development for several years and are designed to withstand the rigors of space. The walk is set to be conducted on the mission’s third day.

What spacecraft will carry the Polaris Dawn crew?

The crew will be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The spacecraft was designed to service the International Space Station and was developed by Elon Musk’s Hawthorne company after receiving a $2.6-billion contract from NASA in 2014. (The company recently announced it was relocating its headquarters to Texas.) On Saturday, NASA announced another Crew Dragon capsule would pick up and return to Earth two astronauts stranded on the space station because of problems with Boeing’s rival Starliner capsule.

How risky is this mission?

All spaceflight is risky, from launch to the upper-stage maneuvers that place a spacecraft in orbit, to the return to Earth, which requires passing through the atmosphere at temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees. Additionally, a space walk exposes astronauts to the vacuum and hazards of space, which they could not survive without their suits. However, the astronauts will be tethered to the Crew Dragon capsule, and despite the inherent risks of a space walk, there never has been a human casualty during a walk since they were pioneered in the 1960s.

Who funded the mission?

Polaris Dawn is the first flight of the Polaris Program, a private space program funded by Isaacman, a 41-year-old American entrepreneur who founded Shift4 Payments, a Pennsylvania company that processes payments for multiple industries. His net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion. The program involves two more commercial human spaceflights. He has not said how much the mission costs.

What kind of aerospace experience does Isaacman have?

Isaacman is an experienced jet pilot who has flown in air shows and set records for around-the-world flights in 2008 and 2009. He funded and was the commander of Inspiration4, the first all-civilian space mission in September 2021, also carried out by SpaceX on a Crew Dragon capsule.

Who are the other crew members on the mission?

The pilot is Scott “Kidd” Poteet, 50, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who has logged 400 hours of combat flight time and has served as an executive at Shift4. The medical officer is Anna Menon, an operations engineer at SpaceX who has worked on the Dragon program. Mission specialist Sarah Gillis also is an operations specialist at SpaceX who oversees the company’s astronaut training program.

This is the first spaceflight for all three. The crew has been training for two years, including skydiving at the U.S. Air Force Academy and experiencing zero-gravity flight, similar to what NASA astronauts go through. They even hiked to the summit of Cotopaxi, a nearly 20,000-foot peak in Ecuador.

How will the space walk be carried out?

The crew will attempt the space walk while the Crew Dragon is roughly 430 miles above Earth, putting it nearly 200 miles higher than the International Space Station. SpaceX says that colonizing the moon and Mars will require the production of thousands, if not millions, of space suits, and that this is the first iteration of one that can do the job.

The form-fitting suits looks little like the bulky suits NASA astronauts have long used to weather the harsh space environment. Those suits include packs that allow astronauts to survive in space without support from a spacecraft. The Polaris Dawn astronauts will receive their life support from long hoses. Due to the lack of an airlock on the Crew Dragon, the 13-foot-wide capsule will be depressurized and exposed to space during the walk. However, only Isaacman and Gillis will “walk” outside the craft.

Are there other scientific goals for the mission?

The Crew Dragon capsule will be launched into a highly elliptical, or oval-shaped, orbit that at 870 miles above Earth will take it through portions of the Van Allen radiation belts, zones of highly charged solar particles with varying radiation levels. Scientific research will be conducted throughout the mission to better understand human health during long-duration spaceflights, such as a flight to Mars. Multiple universities are collaborating on the research, including USC, Johns Hopkins and Cornell.

Will there be any other benefits to the mission?

The crew will test SpaceX’s Starlink communications system — which provides satellite-based high-speed internet to residential customers — for space communications. There also is a philanthropic component. The three-day Inspiration4 mission raised more than $250 million for cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This flight is also raising money for the same cause.

What do we know about the two other Polaris Program flights?

Those flights also are expected to be led by Isaacman. For the final flight, SpaceX would like to switch from its workhouse Falcon 9 rocket to its giant Starship rocket, which is taller and with more thrust than the Saturn V that propelled the Apollo astronauts to the moon. But the rocket is still in its development phase, so whether that is possible will be determined by the success of future Starship test flights.