SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission successfully launched early yesterday morning from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission aims to take its four-person civilian crew 870 miles above Earth—farther than any human has traveled since NASA's Apollo moon missions and more than three times higher than the International Space Station.
Made up of billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, the mission will attempt the first-ever civilian spacewalk Thursday conducted by two of the crew members. The crew will spend the next five days testing a Starlink laser-based communications system, medical technologies, and new SpaceX-designed spacesuits. See a history of spacesuit designs here.
The mission is the first of the Polaris Program, a series of three planned spaceflights with SpaceX aimed at advancing space technology and exploration for missions to the moon and Mars.
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