Elon Musk on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn launch on August 27: ‘The company’s first spacewalk, the furthest from Earth in more than 50 years…’

Billionaire and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk On August 22, he took to social media to post about his company’s new space mission: the first private spacewalk in history.

“This will be the first spacewalk “To a commercial venture and the furthest journey from Earth anyone has made in over half a century!” Musk posted on his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

The officer SpaceX The account also posted a video teasing the launch of the Polaris Dawn program, which is scheduled to launch at 3:38 a.m. on Aug. 27 (Tuesday, Eastern Time).

The spacewalk, formally known as an Extravehicular Activity (EVA), is planned for the third day of the program, Reuters reported.

So far, only government astronauts from the United States, the former Soviet Union and Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canada and Porcelain According to the Reuters report, as many as 270 spacewalks have been conducted outside the International Space Station (ISS) since its creation in 2000. All of them have used American and Russian spacesuits, it added.

This will be the first spacewalk conducted by a commercial company and the farthest trip from Earth anyone has made in more than half a century! https://t.co/eYQnMo1nrK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2024

Four crew members, first private spacewalk

SpaceX’s five-day Polaris Dawn expedition will see four astronauts embark on the world’s first private mission. spacewalkThe crew, consisting of mission commander Jared Isaacman, mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, mission specialist Sarah Gillis and mission pilot Scott Poteet, arrived in Florida on Aug. 19, ahead of their historic liftoff.

An American billionaire, isaacman He is the CEO of electronic payments company Shift4 and the man behind the SpaceX-affiliated Polaris program. He is known for having chartered the Inspiration4 in 2021, the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight. “It’s been two and a half years since we announced the Polaris program. It’s been a really exciting development and training journey,” he said at a press conference on August 19.

It is worth noting that it has invested jointly with SpaceX in the three-mission program, but did not disclose how much, the report added.

• The first is reaching an altitude of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the farthest distance traveled by a space crew since the Apollo lunar missions. It will also make Gillis and Menon the first women to travel farther from Earth.
• For context, the International Space Station (ISS) is at an altitude of about 400 kilometres and the distance between the Earth and the Moon is 380,000 kilometres, AFP added.
• The second objective is to conduct a laser communication test between the ship and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
• And third, and most importantly, in a lower orbit, astronauts will perform the first commercial spacewalk, which will be broadcast live on the third day of the mission. Each pair will take turns performing the spacewalk.
• A second, similar Polaris mission is planned after this trip, and then a third planned trip will be the first crewed flight on SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, currently in development and eventually destined for trips to the Moon and Mars.
• “Someday, someone might be wearing a version of the suit while walking on Mars. It’s a great honor to have the opportunity to test it on this flight. I would certainly like my children to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars and venturing out to explore our solar system. We haven’t even begun to explore it yet. There’s so much to explore and discover along the way,” Isaacman said.

(With contributions from AFP and Reuters)