SpaceX wants to put astronauts into a particularly high orbit around Earth for the first time today (9:38am CEST). In the “Polaris Dawn” mission, planned for a maximum of five days, the four crew members will travel up to 700 kilometers above Earth after taking off from the Cape Canaveral spacecraft. According to SpaceX, this is the longest distance humans have traveled to Earth since the Apollo missions to the moon in the early 1970s. For comparison: the International Space Station ISS is located at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
The commander of “Polaris Dawn” is billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, who organized the mission along with SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Along with Isaacman, astronauts Kit Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon will fly into space on the spacecraft “Dragon” using the “Falcon 9” rocket.
The mission will also include the first spacewalk by astronauts, during which the private space agency wants to try out a new space suit for outdoor operations. As the project website says, the case is meant to provide greater mobility during the “first commercial spacewalk.” It also offers a helmet, a camera and a display built with new materials that regulate heat better in icy-cold places.
