Many are excited about the Polaris Dawn mission that is launching soon, including well-known billionaire tech mogul and SpaceX CEO and co-founder Elon Musk. Over the weekend, the eccentric tech executive hinted that the mission will be “epic,” showing his excitement for the upcoming launch, which is set to take place next week.

SpaceX will operate the launch and vehicle of the Polaris Dawn mission, taking the four civilian astronauts to a point farther away than Earth’s orbit.

Elon Musk promises SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will be ‘epic’

The SpaceX CEO posted about the Polaris Dawn mission, which is scheduled for next week, no earlier than Monday, August 26, claiming that the upcoming journey will be “epic.” The tech executive also said that this will be SpaceX’s “first” spacewalk mission that the company will conduct, with the focus being on the purely civilian spaceflight, which will be led by Shift4’s Jared Isaacman.

It is known that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will carry the four astronauts, while the Falcon 9 will be responsible for transporting them into orbit. The mission will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Read also: NASA and SpaceX Crew-9 launch will be delayed due to Boeing’s Starliner

What can we expect from the “historic” Polaris Dawn mission?

First, Polaris Dawn would launch four civilian astronauts and attempt to reach an altitude of 700 kilometers above Earth, where it would orbit for several days. That’s Crew Dragon’s maximum distance and 300 kilometers farther than the International Space Station.

The mission became “historic” due to the plans to conduct the first commercial spacewalk with a civilian crew and to test SpaceX’s EVA (extravestibule activity) spacesuits.

SpaceX and Polaris Dawn would also collect valuable data on the effects of space on the human body in preparation for the space company’s plans to fly to the Moon and Mars.

The highly anticipated launch of the Polaris Dawn mission

To raise awareness, travel more into space, and encourage more civilians to become astronauts, the idea of ​​Polaris Dawn was born from former space alumnus Jared Isaacman. The idea was first put into action in 2022, when SpaceX was again selected to launch the new group of astronauts into the cosmos. This is Isaacman’s second adventure into the beyond after his stint on Inspiration4 in 2021.

However, the mission has faced several delays from various quarters. The first was a postponement of the planned launch in December 2022 to March 2023. Later, the date was pushed back to 2024, with a fixed time slot for July. However, there was also a postponement by the company to give priority to NASA’s Crew-9 mission. However, both were also pushed beyond the original schedule.

Polaris Dawn’s launch was secured for late August, while NASA’s Crew-9 was pushed back to September. The all-civilian mission was able to proceed as it remains on schedule.

Soon, the world will see Polaris Dawn lift off aboard Crew Dragon and Falcon 9, take civilians beyond orbit, and perform the historic spacewalk, all of which is highly anticipated by Elon Musk.

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