The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before dawn on Monday, carrying four crew members on a five-day journey into space. The mission will be led by Jared Isaacman, who previously chartered the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission in 2021.
Isaacman is joined on this pioneering flight by two SpaceX employees: Sarah Gillis, the company’s astronaut training lead, and Anna Menon, a former NASA employee. The fourth crew member is pilot Scott Poteet, a close friend of Isaacman’s. The team has undergone nearly 2,000 hours of intensive training, including simulator sessions, centrifuge exercises, skydiving, and even scaling Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano.
The mission has three primary objectives, alongside conducting about 40 experiments. The crew aims to reach an altitude of 1,400 kilometres, the farthest a crewed mission has ventured since the Apollo lunar missions. Notably, Gillis and Menon would become the first women to travel to this farthest point from Earth.
Another key goal is to perform a laser communication test with SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. However, the mission’s most groundbreaking feat will be the first-ever commercial spacewalk, scheduled for the third day of the mission and broadcast live.
Looking ahead, SpaceX has planned two more Polaris missions. The final one will be the first crewed flight on the company’s Starship rocket, which is currently under development and aims to eventually reach the moon and Mars.
