This first-ever private spacewalk will bring serious style to space.
SpaceX’s privately funded crewed mission, Polaris Dawn, is moving toward launch sometime this summer. The four-person crew, which includes the mission’s financier, billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman, recently completed acceptance tests for SpaceX’s new extravehicular activity (EVA) suits, which they will wear when they become the first private citizens to perform a spacewalk in orbit.
In addition to Isaacman, the crew includes two principal operations engineers at SpaceX, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, serving as mission specialists, and the mission’s pilot, former United States Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet. Training for their upcoming mission included hands-on work developing SpaceX’s new EVA suit, which recently reached its latest major development milestone when the crew donned the suits in a vacuum for the first time.
“The Polaris Dawn crew recently completed a series of spacesuit acceptance tests in preparation for the mission’s extravehicular activity,” reads an update on the mission’s website. Wearing their EVA suits in a vacuum for the first time allowed SpaceX to collect a variety of data ahead of an upcoming crew mission where they will wear the suits in the vacuum of space.
According to the Polaris website, SpaceX’s vacuum environment allowed it to collect a variety of data about what to expect during an actual EVA:
- “Learning how a space suit works in a vacuum;
- Collecting spacesuit and biometric data to assess overall system performance in a flight-like environment;
- Understanding the general effects of pressure changes on their body during pressure operations;
- An insight into the various thermal conditions expected during a spacewalk; and
- An increased metabolic period for the crew to simulate the expected workload during a spacewalk, as well as a period of reduced activity to understand the trend of body temperatures during the operation.”
A series of photos from the test have been posted to Polaris Porgram’s Flickr account, showing SpaceX’s sleek, if familiar, new spacesuit design. Polaris Dawn is the follow-up mission to SpaceX’s first private astronaut launch, Inspiration4, also funded by Isaacman, and the first of three potential missions under the Polaris program. Each will help raise money for the Children’s Cancer Research Center St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Related: SpaceX Unveils New EVA Suit for First Private Spacewalk on Upcoming Polaris Dawn Space Flight (Video)
The first images of SpaceX’s EVA suit, which looks like a bulkier version of its intravehucliar active (IVA) suits — pressurized suits worn during spacecraft launch and landing but not designed to operate in the exposed vacuum of space — were revealed on the company’s website on April 4.
But new Polaris Dawn images from recent tests highlight some of the differences between the IVA and EVA suits.
In particular, the suit’s helmet has received some improvements, including a new head-up display for the astronauts that allows data such as the internal pressure, temperature and humidity of their suits to be displayed. SpaceX EVA suits also feature new insulation materials and joint enhancements for increased mobility and temperature control.
Related: Meet the four private Polaris Dawn astronauts that SpaceX will launch into orbit this year
Polaris Dawn is scheduled to last five days and will include nearly 40 different science experiments the crew will conduct in space, including testing the new EVA suits and the capabilities of their Crew Dragon spacecraft when exposed to a vacuum.
We’re targeting a Polaris Dawn launch on July 31st at the earliest pic.twitter.com/gVicWmMNE5July 3, 2024
According to a July 3rd post on X, the Polaris team was targeting July 31st for the launch of its historic mission at the earliest, but that date may be very tentative after a recent incident during the launch of SpaceX’s Starlink suite of satellites.
The July 11 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 additions to the company’s Internet satellite megaconstellation ended in failure, with the second stage experiencing a phenomenon that resulted in the catastrophic loss of the entire payload. As a result, all Falcon 9 launches have been delayed pending the results of an investigation by SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The Falcon 9 grounding may also have implications for NASA’s upcoming missions to the International Space Station (ISS), which was scheduled to launch both a cargo mission and a crewed mission to the space station in the coming months.