Crew Dragon Polaris Dawn (Crew Dragon Resilience)

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  61042 /24161A Launch date - time  10 September 2024 - 09:23:49 UTC Launch site  CCK, LC-39A Launch vehicle  Falcon-9 Block 5 (B1083-4) Flight 372 Spacecraft  Crew Dragon (Dragon C207-F4?) Mass (kg)  12519? kg Total cargo mass (kg)   kg Mission  Private spaceflight: SpaceX 4 manned launch Geocentric orbit:    - Perigee altitude  700 km    - Apogee altitude  Launch:1,200 km     Day 1: 1,400 km     Day 2-5: 730 km    - Inclination  51.7°    - Period  106 min EVA  1 (Isaacman) Duration  26 min Landing date - time  15 September 2024 - 07:36:54 UTC Landing location   Gulf of Mexico near Dry Tortugas (25º1 °N, 83º0 °W) Recovered by  MV Shannon Mission Duration (d:hr:min)  4d, 22, 13min Nbr orbits  75 Landing crew  launch crew

Launched Crew:

Launch crew: Isaacman, Poteet, Gillis and Menon.

Description:

• Private mission by SpaceX. Landing near Dry Tortugas NW of Key West, Gulf of Mexico.
• This Crew Dragon mission will take advantage of Falcon 9 and Dragon's maximum performance, flying higher than any Crew Dragon mission to date and endeavoring to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown. Orbiting through portions of the Van Allen radiation belt, Polaris Dawn will conduct research with the aim of better understanding the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.
• On September 12, 2024 Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis performed the first commercial spacewalk ever (26 min). They stepped out of the Crew Dragon one after the other for about 20 minutes. They remain secured via foot straps that are attached to a kind of ladder at the other end. In contrast to external missions on the ISS space station, they are not supplied with breathing air via a backpack, but via a hose from the spacecraft.
  During the EVA, Isaacman and Gillis performed several tests of their suit mobility including trials of hand/body control, vertical movement, and using a foot restraint, only their lower legs were still inside the spacecraft. Gillis, at 30 years old, became the youngest person to date to participate in a spacewalk.
  Scott Poteet and Anna Menon remained in the depressurized capsule and made an IVA.
• The Polaris Dawn mission also marked several other milestones. Menon and Gillis flew further from Earth than any women before them and Gillis, at 30 years old, became the youngest person to date to participate in a spacewalk. During the spacewalk, a new record was set for the number of people (four) simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space. The crew also contributed to breaking the record for the most people (19) simultaneously in orbit, set after the Soyuz MS-26 mission launched on 11 September along with the nine crew members of the International Space Station and the three crew members of China's Tiangong space station.
• Polaris Dawn astronaut Sarah Gillis performed the first known violin solo in space, playing "Rey's Theme," from the "Star Wars" series. The violinist shares how she prepared for the out-of-this-world moment to inspire the world.

Falcon rocket on launchpad

Mission details:

• Originally slated to fly in late 2022, the program suffered delays over the design of the EVA spacesuits and technical problems with SpaceX testing inter-satellite laser communication links. By October 2022, the launch had slipped to March 2023, and by February 2023, had slipped to no earlier than mid-2023. By mid-2023, the flight was delayed until 2024, with Isaacman confirming in December a launch date of April 2024. On 7 June, Isaacman announced that the launch was scheduled no earlier than 12 July 2024. Three weeks later, the Polaris program announced on its X account that the earliest launch date was 31 July 2024.
  The mission was delayed again following the failure of a Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage on 12 July 2024. After SpaceX addressed the cause of the mishap, SpaceX's Dragon mission management director Sarah Walker announced in a 26 July news conference that Polaris Dawn would launch "in late summer" after the Crew-9 mission for NASA, which had been scheduled to launch no earlier than 18 August before its delay. SpaceX then said that it was targeting a 26 August launch date on 7 August. SpaceX pushed the launch date back a day to 27 August in order to allow "additional time for teams to complete preflight" checkouts. The flight was further delayed by weather at the landing site and was scheduled for the early morning of September 6, 2024.
  
  

  Artist's rendering of Resilience for Polaris Dawn, with its nose cone open

  
  

  Isaacman EVA.

  Gillis EVA.

• At approximately 700 kilometers above the Earth, the crew will attempt the first-ever commercial extravehicular activity (EVA) with SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, upgraded from the current intravehicular (IVA) suit. Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits; the development of this suit and the execution of the EVA will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions.
  The Polaris Dawn crew will be the first crew to test Starlink laser-based communications in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
  While in orbit, the crew will conduct scientific research designed to advance both human health on Earth and our understanding of human health during future long-duration spaceflights. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Using ultrasound to monitor, detect, and quantify venous gas emboli (VGE), contributing to studies on human prevalence to decompression sickness;
  Gathering data on the radiation environment to better understand how space radiation affects human biological systems;
  Providing biological samples towards multi-omics analyses for a long-term Biobank; and
  Research related to Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), which is a key risk to human health in long-duration spaceflight.

Polaris on sea.

Polaris recovery.

External links:

• Wikipedia: Description Polaris
• Wikipedia: Polaris program
• Space Facts: Description Polaris

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Titusville. Credit: #411

Spacewalk, Hawthorne cancel.