WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Askume) – Four private astronauts launched aboard a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Tuesday, beginning the company’s five-day Polaris Dawn mission to test new spacesuit designs and become the first private spacewalkers.
The crew, which included a billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees, took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at about 5:23 a.m. ET (0923 GMT).
About nine and a half minutes later, the capsule reached orbit and freefall (zero gravity) became apparent as the crew twirled around a stuffed astronaut toy dog. Three minutes later, the Crew Dragon spacecraft separated from its support box, and onboard cameras showed a stunning view of the sunlit Earth from the capsule.
“When you look up at Polaris, remember that your courage illuminates the map for future explorers,” SpaceX launch director Frank Messina told the crew over the radio. “We have full confidence in your skills, your courage and your teamwork to carry out the mission … We welcome you from the start.”
The Falcon 9 booster for this mission landed safely at the naval base.
This is the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s fifth and most dangerous single mission to date. The spacecraft will eventually enter an elliptical orbit with a closest approach of 190 kilometers (118 miles) and a distance of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from Earth, the closest orbit ever reached by humans since the end of the US Apollo moon landing program in 1972. Farthest distance.
Last month’s launch attempt was delayed a few hours before liftoff due to a small helium leak from ground equipment on the SpaceX launch pad .Postponed. SpaceX fixed the leak, but the company’s Falcon 9 rocket was grounded by US regulators after a booster recovery failure on an unrelated mission , further delaying the Polaris launch. The launch was delayed by about two hours on Tuesday because of bad weather.
In the past, spacewalks were only possible by well-trained and well-funded government astronauts. Since the construction of the International Space Station in 2000, about 270 astronauts have visited the International Space Station, including 16 Chinese astronauts who have visited the Beijing Tiangong Space Station.
Spacewalk planned for day three
On the third day of the mission, the Polaris Dawn spacewalk will take place at an altitude of 700 kilometers and last about 20 minutes. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will slowly depressurize its entire cabin — it doesn’t have an airlock like the International Space Station — and all four astronauts will rely on their thin SpaceX-built spacesuits for oxygen.
The first American space flight was in a Gemini capsule in 1965, and a similar procedure was used for the Polaris Dawn mission: the capsule was depressurized, the hatch opened, and an astronaut in a spacesuit was pulled out along with the passengers. Ropes help.
Jared Isaacman, 41, a pilot and the billionaire founder of electronic payments company Shift4, is funding the Polaris mission, just as he is funding SpaceX’s 2021 Inspiration4 flight. He declined to say how much he paid for the mission, but it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
He was accompanied by mission pilot and retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Poteat, 50, as well as SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis, 30, and Anna Gillis, 38. Menon (Anna Menon), both senior engineers at the company.
During the spacewalk, Isaacman and Gillis will leave the spacecraft tethered to oxygen tubes, while Poteat and Menon will remain inside.
The mission is the first in Isaacman’s private Polaris program, which also includes future follow-up Crew Dragon missions and subsequent flights on SpaceX’s Starship, the giant rocket the company is developing to serve as the main vehicle to the moon and Mars.
The four astronauts were actually test subjects in a series of scientific experiments designed to explain how cosmic radiation and the vacuum of space affect the human body and the International Space Station. This will lead to decades of research by astronauts living on Earth.
Since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, NASA has relied heavily on the company and its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which has launched missions to the International Space Station for the agency. It has flown nine astronaut missions and is the only operational crew-class vehicle in the United States.
The company has previously flown four private missions: Isaac Mann’s Inspiration4, and three private astronaut flights organized by Houston-based mission broker Axiom Space.
Boeing is working on developing a similar spacecraft, the Starliner, to compete with the Crew Dragon spacecraft. But Starliner’s latest NASA test mission, launched in June — its first crewed flight — left astronauts on the International Space Station last week due to some problems with the propulsion system .
