Axiom received a nearly $230 million task order to develop the AxEMU suit, which Artemis astronauts will test out on the lunar surface. The task order is part of a contract with NASA worth up to $3.5 billion that also includes Collins Aerospace, which earlier this year abandoned efforts to develop extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits under its own $100 million task order.

NASA’s current EVA suits are more than four decades old, and recent malfunctions have forced the space agency to postpone several spacewalks.

“We have broken the mold,” said Matt Ondler, president of Axiom Space. “The Axiom Space-Prada partnership has set a new foundational model for cross-industry collaboration, further expanding what’s possible in commercial space.”

Artemis III will land a crew at the lunar south pole, so Axiom’s suit is designed to withstand extreme temperatures in regions devoid of sunlight. Its portable life support system will keep astronauts safe on spacewalks for up to eight hours, the company says.

Axiom says its design is more flexible, efficient, and safe than NASA’s existing suits. The AxEMU boots, for example, are built to withstand rough terrain and the freezing cold, while the helmet and visor covering are designed to improve astronauts’ vision of their surroundings. The suit can accommodate crew of nearly all body types.

Several AxEMU systems are redundant, including an onboard diagnostic system that tracks the wearer’s vital signs. Astronauts can control its temperature using a carbon dioxide scrubber and cooling system. A 4G/LTE communications system allows them to keep in touch with the rest of the crew during excursions.

The outer suit material, which was designed in partnership with Prada, will reflect heat and protect against small projectiles like dust.

“I’m very proud of the result we’re showing today, which is just the first step in a long-term collaboration with Axiom Space,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, chief marketing officer and head of corporate social responsibility for Prada Group. “We’ve shared our expertise on high-performance materials, features, and sewing techniques, and we learned a lot.”

According to Axiom, the suit will be designed for missions on the moon as well as in low-Earth orbit. That could be enticing for non-NASA customers that have different missions in mind.

The firm on Wednesday said the AxEMU suit is close to the final stage of development, with a critical design review expected next year. Already, it has endured underwater, reduced gravity, and pressurized simulation testing at NASA facilities. In the coming months, the space agency will perform crewed underwater testing at its Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and gauge the suit’s fit with the prototype lunar rover the Artemis astronauts will drive.

Simultaneously, Axiom is developing the Axiom Station: one of several commercial space outposts that could replace the International Space Station (ISS) when NASA destroys it at the end of the decade. The firm has already completed three NASA-approved private astronaut missions to the ISS and is scheduled for a fourth in Spring 2025.

NASA’s largest commercial partner, SpaceX, meanwhile, has developed its own EVA spacesuit, which debuted during the first civilian spacewalk on September’s Polaris Dawn mission. The company claims it will one day manufacture thousands of suits for future astronauts to build and explore on Mars.

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But Isaacman—now a SpaceX “frequent flier” after also taking part in 2021’s Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian spaceflight—is just getting started.

“If we actually believe in the future that SpaceX is trying to create—where tens of thousands of people can be in space, on the moon, walking around on Mars—these kinds of capabilities have to exist within commercial industry,” Isaacman told FLYING at the 2024 UP.Summit.

Polaris Dawn was the first of three missions under Isaacman’s Polaris Program. The final mission, which does not yet have a target date, is expected to be the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship: the most powerful rocket ever built and the vehicle CEO Elon Musk believes will help humans colonize Mars.

Isaacman and crewmates Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, the first SpaceX employees to actually fly to space, sat down with FLYING for a mission debrief to highlight their favorite moments from Polaris Dawn—and talk about what comes next.

No Days Off

From the moment they lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, secured in a SpaceX Dragon capsule strapped to a Falcon 9 rocket, the Polaris Dawn crew got to work.

On the first day of the mission, for example, the crew reached an orbital apogee of 870 miles—three times higher than the International Space Station and the farthest humans have traveled from Earth since the Apollo era. Gillis and Menon now share the record for the furthest distance traveled from Earth by a woman.

At that altitude, the crew passed through the Van Allen radiation belts, a treacherous environment for humans. It conducted research that will help scientists better understand how to protect astronauts flying through that region.

“There’s micrometeoroid and debris that’s out there. A little millimeter piece of aluminum traveling at 8 kilometers a second will shred just about everything,” Isaacman said during a panel discussion at UP.Summit. “It’s a scary prospect. But we’ve got to travel through that if we’re going to get to the moon and Mars.”

Isaacman’s favorite moment of the mission, however, was the spacewalk he and Gillis performed. It was the first time civilian astronauts ventured outside a spacecraft. And because the Dragon capsule lacks an airlock, it was also the first time four astronauts were simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space.

“That moment when Jared opened the hatch and there was the black beauty of space outside the hatch was a moment full of sensation, full of the awe that that evoked, as well as a cold rushing over your body,” Menon said. “It’s a full body experience.”

Traveling at 17,500 mph at an orbital altitude north of 450 miles, the astronauts were protected by SpaceX’s extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, which were specially designed for Polaris Dawn. The goal of the spacewalk was to perform mobility testing on the suits—a relatively simple objective compared to previous EVAs.

“The difference is—and this is so important—is all of those had the entire weight and resources of world superpowers behind them,” Isaacman said.

NASA’s budget peaked in the 1960s, when it was about 4.5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

For Gillis, a classically trained violinist, the highlight was her on-orbit performance of “Rey’s Theme” from the Star Wars franchise. Incredibly, Gillis said she had no prior practice playing in microgravity, where pushing on the violin’s fingerboard can move the entire instrument. She used a quarter-sized bow for greater control.

“It was three crewmembers in front of me with this tangle of cables, and the chaos of them trying to get the right angle as they’re floating away, and I’m floating away,” Gillis said. “It was just this total joy to try and record that.”

The performance, organized in partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and El Sistema USA, was a charitable effort to raise awareness and funding for cancer research and access to music education. But it was also a demonstration of SpaceX’s Starlink communications system. A Starlink module on Dragon used a beam of light to transmit the footage to another satellite while both were moving at orbital speeds.

How They Did It

Polaris Dawn was a private astronaut mission, meaning SpaceX was responsible for preparing the crew. Scott “Kidd” Poteet, the fourth crewmember and a retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot of two decades, said the training was more intense than anything he has ever experienced.

Gillis, a SpaceX astronaut trainer, said that while the crewmembers brought plenty of experience, combining their strengths was a learning curve. Early on, for example, they struggled through teamwork exercises in a simulator.

“We might have all of this expertise across the four of us, but we utterly failed that sim,” Gillis said. “Just because you have your own expertise doesn’t mean you are yet able to work in a team well.”

Added Menon: “It is really, really neat to see how the team develops together, how they learn to work together, and how they prepare for a mission. And it was really confidence inspiring, and really, to me, a very beautiful part of the development process getting us to launch.”

Isaacman said the training for Polaris Dawn was as special as the mission itself. The astronauts’ preparations took them scuba diving and skydiving, into the cockpit of fighter jets, and even to the top of Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador. Each day was a new adventure.

“You came in one day and this development suit had a handful of different rotators or joints in it that we were testing out,” Isaacman said, “and then we come back the next week and it would be entirely different.”

In just two and a half years, SpaceX trained the crew, modified Dragon, and developed the EVA suits for Polaris Dawn. To put that into perspective, Menon’s husband, Anil Menon, was selected by NASA for an astronaut mission four days before Menon was picked by SpaceX—but she flew first.

Why It Matters

The technology and capabilities demonstrated during Polaris Dawn could alter human spaceflight as we know it.

The spacewalk, for example, was more than a flashy achievement. NASA’s current EVA spacesuits were designed four decades ago, and suit maintenance has forced the agency to postpone several spacewalks in recent months. Earlier this year, NASA and Collins Aerospace “mutually agreed” to end a $100 million contract that would see Collins deliver new suits by 2026.

NASA could spend billions of dollars on a suit redesign. SpaceX’s EVA suit, meanwhile, is designed to be manufactured at scale for thousands of people to build and explore on Mars, Isaacman said. The suit was designed for Polaris Dawn specifically, “but just like a lot of things that SpaceX works on, the utility is quite broad,” he said, implying that other astronauts will one day wear it.

The Starlink communications system showcased during the mission, meanwhile, could be a tool to ease demand on NASA’s Deep Space Network: an array of giant radio antennas that supports communications in the final frontier.

“We’re even hearing now, just even alleviating the demand over the [U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System] and ground stations…as being a potential communication path to lunar missions, or potentially even Mars,” Isaacman said.

The altitude record, spacewalk, and symphony performance grabbed most of the Polaris Dawn headlines. But in between those objectives, the crew conducted an array of experiments to study the health of astronauts on long-duration spaceflight.

“There’s a lot of problems we have to solve if we’re going to have thousands of people living and working in space for really long periods of time and going really far from Earth,” said Menon.

For example, crewmembers stuck a device called an endoscope down their noses to image their airways, the first time that has been accomplished in space. They also researched spaceflight associated neuro ocular syndrome (SANS), a condition developed in microgravity that can impair astronauts’ vision. Other experiments focused on motion sickness, which according to Menon affects about 6 in 10 people when they first reach space.

“If you have 100 people in a spacecraft going up at the same time, and 60 of them are vomiting, that’s a big problem,” she said.

Data from these experiments will be entered into a database that is accessible to the wider space community, allowing non-SpaceX researchers to learn for years to come.

“If we want to have a future among the stars, if we want to have many people living and working there, we need these solutions,” Gillis said. “We need a new communication system. We need EVA suits so people can actually go and explore the surface of Mars. We need to understand the health implications so by the time we get there, they haven’t lost their vision and they aren’t sick.”

The crew also spent plenty of time studying problems back on Earth.

Isaacman’s Inspiration4 crewmate, St. Jude physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux, became the first human to fly to space with a prosthesis after recovering from childhood bone cancer. That mission raised more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the charity, which signed on as a partner for Polaris Dawn.

“You’ll continue to see [St. Jude] play a huge part in all of our missions until their work is done,” Isaacman said.

The astronauts traveled the world visiting hospitals and meeting children, medical professionals, and researchers who helped inform some of their experiments. They installed Starlink connections at many facilities, providing access to the Internet and education. The work was part of St. Jude’s effort to create cancer treatment programs, educate oncologists, and provide access to safe chemotherapy treatment worldwide.

“Right now, depending on where you’re born, you either have an 80 percent chance of survival, or you have a 20 percent chance if you’re not born in the U.S.,” Gillis said. “So [St. Jude has] pioneered extraordinary outcomes for children. But if you aren’t born here, you don’t benefit from that.”

One of the mission’s most special moments was Menon’s on-orbit reading of a children’s book she authored, Kisses from Space, to her two children and St. Jude patients. Proceeds from the book will go to St. Jude, and the charity will auction off the copy that traveled to space.

“It was ultimately the story of the power of love to overcome any distance, and I think, hopefully, sharing space but also sharing human connection and the power of that through this space story,” Menon said. “Reaching kids around the world was a powerful moment.”

What’s Next?

Isaacman said the Polaris Dawn crew still has a few weeks of debriefing, and he has yet to fully turn his sights to the next Polaris mission.

“We are still very on-mission,” he said. “We really need to understand everything we got right and could have done better on this one, things we got wrong and certainly could improve upon, before you even get to what’s in the realm of possibility for Mission Two.”

Isaacman couldn’t say much about the next mission. But some time next year, he said, the Polaris team will come together to determine what they can pull off.

For example, SpaceX could improve its EVA suit with added mobility, a portable life support system, or increased pressure, which would eliminate the “prebreathe” process Polaris astronauts used to remove nitrogen from their bodies before the EVA. Chances are the next mission will feature another spacewalk.

“It would be such a travesty if [SpaceX] didn’t take what they learned and take another giant leap in a good direction,” Isaacman said. “So I would fully expect EVAs are on the horizon for the next go.”

Mission Two will set the stage for the final Polaris mission, which is expected to be the debut crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship. Both Starship and the Super Heavy booster are designed to be fully reusable, and SpaceX plans to fly them hundreds of times before adding crew. Musk in September said the company could launch uncrewed Starships to Mars within two years.

If SpaceX can successfully validate Starship, it could usher in a new era of civilian spaceflight. Gillis and Menon, for example, were the first two SpaceX employees to reach the final frontier, but they may not be the last.

“If you have a propulsion engineer, you have the interior engineer, the suit engineer on that spaceship, it makes a lot of sense to bring the expertise with you when you’re going to Mars,” Menon said. “I don’t think I ever thought it would happen this soon—and I definitely didn’t think it would be me.”

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The post Polaris Dawn Crew Talks Mission Highlights, Next Steps appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The firm is preparing for the Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which will culminate in the long-awaited return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in February. Wilmore and Williams hitched a ride to the ISS on Boeing’s Starliner in June and have remained there as engineers contended with several issues on the spacecraft.

Crew-9 will be the first human spaceflight to launch from Space Launch Complex-40. Initially scheduled to fly in August, the mission was pushed back to give NASA and Boeing more time to analyze and eventually undock Starliner, freeing up space for Dragon to dock.

The flight is NASA’s ninth Commercial Crew mission with SpaceX, the agency’s sole active contractor for that program. Boeing, the other contract recipient, is still developing Starliner but hopes to fly an inaugural astronaut rotation mission late next year. The program seeks to maintain a continuous human presence on the ISS, which in 2025 will enter its 24th consecutive year of occupation.

Crew-9 was originally slated to be a four-person mission. But only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will fly up to the space station, meaning Dragon will launch with a pair of empty seats. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were taken off the flight to make way for Williams and Wilmore but are eligible for reassignment.

Hague was chosen due to his experience. Gorbunov, who has never flown to space, remains on the manifest because NASA is required to send a Roscosmos cosmonaut on the mission.

After liftoff, Dragon will accelerate to 17,500 mph before docking autonomously with the space station. Upon arrival, they will join the crew of ISS Expedition 72, which includes Wilmore, Williams, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.

Over the course of about five months, the crew will perform station maintenance via spacewalk and conduct more than 200 scientific research experiments, intended to prepare humans for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit as well as solve problems back on Earth. Among other things, they will study the physics of supernova explosions, the behavior of cells and platelets during long-duration spaceflight, and methods to reduce changes to astronaut brain and ocular structure due to low gravity.

NASA will provide live streaming coverage of the Crew-9 prelaunch, launch, postlaunch, and docking on NASA+ and the agency’s website, starting Friday afternoon. It will also maintain a live video feed of the launchpad in the hours leading up to liftoff and provide blog updates. Spaceflight enthusiasts can register to attend the launch virtually.

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The post What to Watch: SpaceX Crew-9 Scheduled for Saturday Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

During a committee hearing focused on FAA oversight of Boeing amid the manufacturer’s recent safety woes, Kiley squeezed in a few questions about Starship, which according to SpaceX has been bogged down by licensing issues “ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd.”

“America is being smothered by legions of regulators, often inept & politically-driven,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X on Thursday.

The largest rocket ever built, Starship so far has made four suborbital test flights. SpaceX will attempt a unique maneuver during Flight 5, using a pair of “chopstick” arms to catch the rocket’s Super Heavy booster in midair. But while Musk had hoped to launch this month, the FAA told the company its license would be ready no earlier than late November.

“I think the two-month delay is necessary to comply with the launch requirements, and I think that’s an important part of safety culture,” Whitaker said.

According to the FAA leader, SpaceX has failed to provide a sonic boom analysis for the upcoming mission, which will have a larger sonic boom radius than previous flights. That brought a 30-day delay to give the FAA time to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Whitaker said the analysis is “safety related.”

Starship faces further delays because SpaceX filed a launch application without disclosing it was in violation of Texas law, Whitaker said. The Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month told FLYING the company violated the Clean Water Act by failing to contain a liquid oxygen spill at its Starbase launchpad, prompting a $150,000 fine. SpaceX denied that it violated any laws at Starbase but ate the fine to avoid any consequences.

SpaceX also faces more than $630,000 in proposed fines from the FAA for allegedly failing to adhere to launch requirements on two previous missions. Whitaker said the fines are unrelated to the Flight 5 setback, but the agency claims the company’s unauthorized use of a new control room and fuel farm raised safety concerns. Musk, in response, said SpaceX will fight the penalties in court.

“I think safety is in the public interest, and that’s our priority focus with the proposed civil penalty,” Whitaker said, adding that fines are the “only tool” the FAA has to ensure compliance.

When asked how SpaceX could speed up the licensing process, the administrator responded, “Complying with the regulations would be the best path.”

SpaceX, however, did not take kindly to Whitaker’s comments. The company on Tuesday sent a letter to Kiley claiming that Whitaker “made several incorrect statements today regarding SpaceX,” bringing the feud between the company and the agency further into the public eye.

“In fact,” the company wrote, “every statement he made was incorrect.”

Whitaker twice said SpaceX “launched without a permit,” which as the company pointed out is not true. As the FAA notes, the firm faces penalties for “allegedly failing to follow its license requirements,” necessitating the existence of a license.

The company claimed its new fuel farm was approved by Federal Range Safety officials and analyzed by the FAA, which “required no changes to the previously approved Federal Range configuration.” The agency additionally “was on console and did not stop the countdown” for that launch, SpaceX said.

The firm further alleged that the revised sonic boom analysis for Flight 5 “has nothing to do with safety” and is a simple paperwork issue. It said USFWS officials previously determined the booms have no environmental impact and that the slightly larger impact area won’t change things.

“SpaceX submitted new information in mid-August detailing how the environmental impact of Flight 5 will cover a larger area than previously reviewed,” the FAA told FLYING earlier this month. “This requires the FAA to consult with other agencies.”

The agency did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment on SpaceX’s letter to Kiley.

SpaceX has grand ambitions for Starship, with Musk earlier this week saying it would begin routine missions to Mars within two years. The company argues that scrutiny from the FAA is not in the public interest, and delaying Flight 5 due to what it believes is not a safety issue could hurt U.S. leadership in human spaceflight.

Kiley agreed, asking whether the FAA “needs to be reformed in a way that is better suited toward the type of innovation that we should be moving toward in the commercial space industry.”

“I agree that this is a vital mission, and I think SpaceX has been a very innovative company,” Whitaker said. “But I think they’re also a mature company. They’ve been around 20 years, and I think they need to operate at the highest level of safety, and that includes adopting a [safety management system] program. That includes having a whistleblower program.”

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Commander Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of Shift4 Payments who purchased the five-day orbital flight from SpaceX, and mission specialist Sarah Gillis, one of two SpaceX engineers who are the company’s first employees to fly to space, exited SpaceX’s Dragon capsule one at a time, each spending about 12 minutes outside. The astronauts were traveling at 17,500 mph at an altitude more than 450 miles above Earth, higher than the International Space Station.

But there’s a catch. Because Dragon does not have an airlock, all four crewmembers were exposed to the vacuum of space. The mission profile added risk compared to a typical spacewalk, where astronauts enter and exit through a vacuum-sealed chamber.

“Today’s EVA was the first time four humans were exposed to the vacuum of space while completing the first-ever commercial astronaut spacewalk from a commercially-produced spacecraft in commercially-produced extravehicular activity [EVA] suits,” said Stu Keech, vice president of Dragon engineering at SpaceX.

SpaceX provided live stream coverage of the full, approximately two-hour process, which can be rewatched here.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Tuesday morning. Almost immediately, the astronauts began preparing for the spacewalk.

The first step was a “prebreathe” to remove nitrogen bubbles that can form within body tissues, causing decompression sickness. During the approximately two-day process, the cabin’s pressure was lowered and oxygen levels were raised gradually to help the crew acclimate.

After that, the astronauts donned their EVA spacesuits, which are designed to be worn both inside and outside the spacecraft. Developed by SpaceX with help from Isaacman’s Polaris team, the suits have endured hundreds of hours of testing and feature greater mobility, durability, and even a high-tech heads-up display (HUD).

“Building a base on the moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits,” SpaceX said in a post on X. “The development of this suit, and the EVA performed on this mission, will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions.”

After completing suit leak checks and venting Dragon down to vacuum, Isaacman opened the hatch and was first to egress. Remaining attached to the spacecraft, he used a specially designed structure called Skywalker to move around and perform tests on the suit’s thermal and mobility systems. Skywalker is equipped with several cameras that were used to capture the moment in real time.

“SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do,” Isaacman said as he looked down on the planet below, “but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.”

After Isaacman returned, it was Gillis’ turn. The SpaceX engineer stepped out and performed the same series of tests, while mission pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon monitored her support systems.

Finally, the hatch was closed, Dragon was repressurized, and the astronauts removed their suits.

“Dragon uses pure nitrogen during ‘repress,’ which mixes with the pure oxygen being released into the cabin via the open loop system that keeps the EVA suits pressurized,” SpaceX said. “This process is unique to Dragon which acts as its own airlock.”

From venting to repressurization, the entire process took about one hour and 45 minutes.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was quick to praise the crew for its historic achievement, as was NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

“Congratulations @PolarisProgram and @SpaceX on the first commercial spacewalk in history!” Nelson posted on X. “Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and @NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy.”

Polaris Dawn, the first of three missions Isaacman purchased for SpaceX under the Polaris program, has so far lived up to its lofty expectations. In addition to the spacewalk, the astronauts on day two of the mission ascended to an orbital height not reached by humans since the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, passing through hazardous radiation belts. 

Menon also read a children’s book she authored, Kisses from Space, for her family and patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, live from orbit. While the Polaris missions are scientific—Polaris Dawn alone will conduct nearly 40 experiments—they are also billed as charitable endeavors to raise money for St. Jude.

Ultimately, the Polaris program may have a ripple effect on NASA’s efforts to return Americans to the moon via the Artemis program.

Polaris Mission III is expected to be the debut crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. The space agency has asked the company to develop a lunar lander variant of Starship to land astronauts on the moon’s south pole, which will be used during Artemis III scheduled for September 2026.

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On Tuesday, as the company occasionally does when facing what it deems to be unfair treatment, SpaceX posted a lengthy update decrying the decision. According to the firm, the FAA had assured it that Starship would get the green light this month. It claims the rocket has been ready to fly since early August, an assertion CEO Elon Musk reiterated last week.

“Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware,” the firm said. “This should never happen and directly threatens America’s position as the leader in space.”

With the ability to be used multiple times on the cheap, Starship is expected to be a game-changer for U.S. spaceflight. SpaceX wants to launch the rocket up to 120 times per year from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Musk last week claimed the vehicle will reach Mars within two years.

SpaceX is also developing a Starship human landing system (HLS), a lunar lander variant of the spacecraft, for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which would return Americans to the moon for the first time in more than half a century. Starship will require a few more test flights before the mission, which is scheduled for late 2026.

That’s not much time, but SpaceX plans to get there using its philosophy of iterative design. Basically, the company puts flight hardware through real-world testing as often as possible to learn quickly and improve the chances of success on the next flight. The strategy helped it commercialize the now-ubiquitous Falcon rocket.

“The more we fly safely, the faster we learn; the faster we learn, the sooner we realize full and rapid rocket reuse,” SpaceX said.

Each Starship test flight has flown farther and accomplished more than the last. The fourth, in June, marked the first time both Starship and the Super Heavy booster made it back to Earth in one piece after the first two attempts ended in explosions.

Keeping with the trend, Flight 5 will feature the most ambitious goal yet. SpaceX will attempt to catch Super Heavy midair using two large “chopstick” arms, returning it safely to the Starbase launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. 

The maneuver could pose risk to Starbase’s launch tower, but SpaceX says it has been preparing for years. The delay could create a ripple effect that hampers future Starship test flights. Safely returning the booster is a critical piece of the system’s reusability.

“It’s understandable that such a unique operation would require additional time to analyze from a licensing perspective,” the firm said. “Unfortunately, instead of focusing resources on critical safety analysis and collaborating on rational safeguards to protect both the public and the environment, the licensing process has been repeatedly derailed by issues ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd.”

What’s the Holdup?

SpaceX said the FAA communicated that a launch license would be awarded this month, but the process has been delayed due to “four open environmental issues” it deems unnecessary.

Starship’s maiden voyage in April 2023 was a brief but bombastic one. The FAA grounded the rocket as it investigated the launch and explosion, which shook buildings, shattered windows, and sent ash and debris flying miles away.

The impact was more severe than SpaceX anticipated due to the lack of a flame deflector—a common fixture at launch sites that uses water to absorb energy and heat—beneath Starbase. According to Musk, the system was absent because it “wasn’t ready in time” and the company thought the pad could withstand the launch.

The FAA’s handling of Starship’s initial launch license prompted a lawsuit from five environmental groups, which the agency reportedly has sought to dismiss. With the flame deflector installed, subsequent Starship flights have not destroyed the launch pad.

However, the FAA has approved two 60-day consultations that could extend the timeline for a fifth mission.

According to SpaceX, the only proposed change to the mission’s hot-stage jettison—during which the top of the Super Heavy booster is expelled—is a new splashdown location, which it says would not raise the risk of harm to marine life. Still, the FAA signed off on a consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service to evaluate the new site.

“SpaceX’s current license authorizing the Starship Flight 4 launch also allows for multiple flights of the same vehicle configuration and mission profile,” the agency told FLYING. “SpaceX chose to modify both for its proposed Starship Flight 5 launch which triggered a more in-depth review.”

SpaceX, though, fears the review could be longer.

“The mechanics of these types of consultations outline that any new questions raised during that time can reset the 60-day counter, over and over again,” it said.

A separate consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), requested by the FAA due to Flight 5’s larger sonic boom radius, could add to the delays. A sonic boom occurs as Starship slows from supersonic speeds on its way back to Earth.

“SpaceX submitted new information in mid-August detailing how the environmental impact of Flight 5 will cover a larger area than previously reviewed,” the FAA said. “This requires the FAA to consult with other agencies.”

According to SpaceX, both agencies have studied Starship booster landings and concluded there is no significant environmental impact from sonic booms. The firm also claims studies back the idea that sonic booms have no detrimental effect on wildlife—but the jury is still out on that one.

According to an evaluation by the California Coastal Commission of SpaceX’s request to increase Falcon 9 launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, experts don’t fully understand the effects of noise on animals. The commission rejected the request in part because sonic booms generated by Falcon 9—a less powerful rocket than Starship—force too many closures and evacuations of local parks.

“At Starbase, we implement an extensive list of mitigations developed with federal and state agencies, many of which require year-round monitoring and frequent updates to regulators and consultation with independent biological experts,” SpaceX said.

Among other things, the company says it works with a local nonprofit to transport injured sea turtles for treatment and monitors bird local populations, using drones to search for nests before and after launch and. It also “adopted” Boca Chica Beach through a Texas state program and sponsors quarterly cleanups it says have removed hundreds of pounds of trash.

A CNBC report last month, which SpaceX swiftly rebuked, alleged that the company violated the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency, though, told FLYING it did indeed violate that law.

Days before Starship’s third test flight in March, the EPA issued an order directing the company to eliminate “unpermitted discharges,” citing a liquid oxygen spill from the flame deflector’s water deluge system that seeped into the surrounding wetlands. SpaceX was forced to apply for a new permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which it did in July, but still ate a fine of nearly $150,000 to resolve the violation.

In response, the company denied it ever discharged pollutants or operated the deluge system without TCEQ permission. According to SpaceX, the device uses “literal drinking water” and has been deemed safe by the FAA, TCEQ, and USFWS.

SpaceX further claimed that the EPA issued its order without knowledge of its TCEQ license or “a basic understanding of the facts” of the system’s operation. It added that the fines are “entirely tied to disagreements over paperwork” and stem from a simple misunderstanding.

“We chose to settle so that we can focus our energy on completing the missions and commitments that we have made to the U.S. government, commercial customers, and ourselves,” SpaceX said. “Paying fines is extremely disappointing when we fundamentally disagree with the allegations, and we are supported by the fact that EPA has agreed that nothing about the operation of our flame deflector will need to change. Only the name of the permit has changed.”

The proposed settlement is open for public comment until October 21.

Singled Out?

The implication by SpaceX is that it is being unfairly targeted for its successes.

The company is prolific within the commercial spaceflight industry—experts estimate it accounted for 87 percent of all spacecraft mass space operators sent into orbit in 2023. At the same time, it handles more NASA missions than any of the agency’s private contractors.

That dominance occasionally draws ire from competitors such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, or, as SpaceX puts it, “bad-faith hysterics from online detractors or special interest groups.”

“Despite a small, but vocal, minority of detractors trying to game the regulatory system to obstruct and delay the development of Starship, SpaceX remains committed to the mission at hand,” the company said.

NASA has made it known that it intends to become one of many customers within a commercial space ecosystem, rather than a service provider, by the end of the decade. As SpaceX continues to snap up NASA contracts—including an agreement to deorbit the International Space Station, ushering in that new era—rivals and critics may fear that its supremacy will only grow.

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Polaris Dawn, a five-day orbital mission purchased from the company by Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of Shift4 Payments, is scheduled for lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than 3:38 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning. Backup launch opportunities are available at 5:23 a.m. EDT and 7:09 a.m. EDT, with the same approximately four-hour window open Wednesday morning.

Spaceflight enthusiasts can watch as SpaceX streams the launch and mission highlights—including the first attempt at a civilian spacewalk—live on its website, X account, and YouTube channel. Coverage will begin 3.5 hours before takeoff. The company and Isaacman’s Polaris Program will post mission updates on their websites and social media feeds.

What’s the Big Deal?

Polaris Dawn’s four-person crew comprises Isaacman and retired Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, as well as SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who will be the first company employees to actually reach space. They will hitch a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and circle the Earth in a modified version of the firm’s Crew Dragon capsule.

The Dragon—which in 2021 carried the first all-civilian astronaut crew on the Inspiration4 mission, also purchased by Isaacman—required a few major tweaks to support the historic civilian spacewalk. Arguably the riskiest portion of the mission, viewers will be able to witness it in real time.

Only two astronauts will exit the capsule, using newly installed mobility aids to perform tests on SpaceX’s specially designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits. The spacewalk is scheduled to happen on day three of the flight, which would be Thursday if it launches as planned.

“It will look like we’re doing a little bit of a dance,” said Isaacman last month, “…[but] we’re going through a test matrix on the suit. And the idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about this suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions.”

However, because Dragon lacks an airlock, all four crewmembers will be exposed to the vacuum of space. To prepare, NASA engineers “baked out” the capsule’s interior using what is essentially a giant oven. The objective was to burn off toxic chemicals that could be released when oxygen is vented from the cabin.

Plenty of work has gone into preparing the astronauts and their EVA suits too. In the two days leading up to the spacewalk, for example, crew members will perform what is known as a “prebreathe” to remove nitrogen bubbles that can form within body tissues, causing decompression sickness.

In addition, the astronauts have spent about 100 hours wearing their suits and thousands of hours preparing using simulators, vacuum chambers, and centrifuges. They’ve gone scuba diving and skydiving, flown fighter jets, and even summited Ecuador’s Cotopaxi, a nearly 20,000-foot peak.

Poteet, who flew Air Force fighters for nearly two decades and was a Thunderbird, said the regimen was “some of the most challenging training that I’ve ever experienced.”

Though it will not be live streamed, Polaris Dawn will also ascend to an orbital height not reached by humans since the Apollo 17 astronauts more than half a century ago. A few hours after launch on Tuesday, Dragon will fly to an apogee of 870 miles, passing through a portion of the treacherous Van Allen radiation belts.

The following day, live on orbit, Menon will read a children’s book she authored to her family and patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Polaris Dawn in addition to being a research mission is a charitable endeavor, aiming to raise millions for St. Jude like Inspiration4 before it.

On the fourth day of the mission, there will also be a live demonstration of a special communication system in Dragon’s trunk, which uses laser beams to interact with Starlink satellites as they zip through space. SpaceX last month said the stream will be worth tuning into but did not provide specifics.

If all goes according to plan, Isaacman, Poteet, Gillis, and Menon will splash down at one of seven locations off the coast of Florida on Sunday.

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The FAA on Wednesday announced it will require an investigation into Falcon 9’s launch of 21 Starlink satellites that morning, which concluded with the booster tipping over into the Atlantic Ocean. Depending on the length of the investigation, two crewed SpaceX missions that will rely on the rocket—one for NASA, the other for a billionaire entrepreneur—could face setbacks.

“We’re just focused on recovery weather at this point. I think that is still [the] gate to our launch.” Jared Isaacman, the purchaser and commander of the latter mission, said in a post on X, seeming to dismiss concerns of a lengthy inquiry.

Wednesday’s flight was the first of two planned back-to-back Starlink launches, the second of which was called off. After its second stage successfully deployed the satellites into orbit, Falcon 9’s first stage appeared to suffer a collapsed landing leg when it touched down on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, stationed several miles off the Florida coast. As flames erupted around it, the booster gave way and tumbled into the water. Beyond the loss of the booster, no injuries or damage were reported.

Still, the incident was enough to bring an FAA investigation, seemingly ending a streak of more than 250 successful SpaceX booster recoveries dating back to 2021. The first stage that flew Wednesday, B1062, completed a record-setting 23rd launch and landing. It played a crucial role for SpaceX, serving as the booster for Inspiration4, which sent the first all-civilian crew to orbit, and Ax-1, the first crewed mission to the International Space Station flown entirely by commercial operators.

“Losing a booster is always sad,” said Jon Edwards, vice president of Falcon launch vehicles at SpaceX, in a post on X. “Each one of them has a unique history and character. Thankfully this doesn’t happen often, due to the robust design and vigilance of the team.

An investigation does not necessarily mean a prolonged grounding. SpaceX will need to submit a final report, including any actions it needs to take to prevent the issue from happening again, for FAA approval.

But if the mishap did not jeopardize public safety or Falcon 9’s safety-critical systems, SpaceX could request the FAA make a public safety determination. If approved, that would allow launches to continue during the investigation. When Falcon 9 was grounded in July, SpaceX used this method to return to flight in just two weeks.

“We are working as hard as we can to thoroughly understand root cause and get corrective actions in place ASAP,” Edwards said on X. “One thing we do know though is this was purely a recovery issue and posed no threat to primary mission or public safety.”

SpaceX is relying on Falcon 9 to launch Isaacman and three other crewmembers, including the first company employees to fly to space, on the historic Polaris Dawn mission. Originally scheduled for this week but delayed due to weather concerns and a small helium leak, the five-day mission will feature the first attempt at a civilian spacewalk. It also aims to orbit at a higher altitude than humans have reached since Apollo 17 more than half a century ago.

Complicating matters somewhat is that Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which SpaceX will use for Polaris Dawn, is needed by NASA for the Europa Clipper mission scheduled for October 10. The company will also use Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to launch Crew-9 to the ISS, which itself could be delayed by the investigation.

Unlike other Commercial Crew rotation missions SpaceX has flown for NASA, Crew-9 will have two astronauts rather than four to accommodate Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been at the ISS since June on Boeing Starliner’s inaugural crew flight test (CFT). The space agency over the weekend opted to bring home the astronauts on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule rather than Starliner, making Falcon 9 an important piece of the operation.

Any delay to Crew-9 could further force NASA to come up with a new plan for Starliner. The capsule needs to depart the space station before Crew-9 launches in order to make way for Dragon.

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The semireusable vessel to the ISS is in the midst of its inaugural crew flight test (CFT) for NASA, which was planned as an eight-day visit to the orbital laboratory but has stretched for months. Officials over the weekend determined the spacecraft’s ongoing helium leaks and thruster issues pose too much risk for the mission to be completed with crew.

Instead, Wilmore and Williams will hitch a ride on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which will launch to the ISS on the Crew-9 mission scheduled for September 24. They’ll work alongside the Crew-9 astronauts during their six-month stay, coming home in February—eight months after they left.

The mission was intended to be Starliner’s final test flight before NASA certifies it for routine ISS missions.

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during an update at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday. “A test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.”

Both Wilmore and Williams are seasoned astronauts, having completed monthslong spaceflight missions in the past. They’ll have plenty of supplies for their extended stay. NASA launched an ISS commercial resupply mission this month and has another scheduled for October.

Norm Knight, director of flight operations for NASA, said he spoke to the crewmembers on Saturday and that they support the decision to return in February. During their lone Earth-to-orbit call in July, the astronauts said they are “having a great time” on the space station.

To make room for Wilmore and Williams, SpaceX’s Crew-9 will fly with two astronauts rather than the typical four. NASA is working to reconfigure Dragon’s seats and adjust the mission manifest to accommodate additional supplies, personal items, and spacesuits for the Starliner crew.

Before Crew-9 launches, Starliner—which is capable of flying autonomously—must undock and make a controlled reentry and landing in the New Mexico desert, freeing up a docking port for Dragon. NASA officials will conduct a flight readiness review to determine when that will happen.

“We also will continue to gather more data about Starliner during the uncrewed return and improve the system for future flights to the space station,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s space operations mission directorate.

Nelson on Saturday said he spoke to newly anointed Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who assured him the company would finish out its $4.2 billion contract to develop Starliner and fly two to six commercial ISS missions. The manufacturer has already spent $1.6 billion out of pocket to cover delays and cost overruns on the fixed-price agreement.

“We continue to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”

What Went Wrong?

Technical problems and setbacks are nothing new for the Starliner program, which has been hampered by faulty thrusters, software and communications issues, corroded valves, and even flammable tape Boeing installed in the cockpit.

NASA in 2014 awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX, which received $2.6 billion, to build the vehicles that would comprise its Commercial Crew astronaut rotation program in a bid to reduce its reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The agency is seeking two vehicles so that each can serve as a backup for the other.

Since then, though, SpaceX has flown eight Commercial Crew missions, while Boeing has yet to complete a crewed flight test.

“All of us really wanted to complete the test flight with crew, and I think unanimously we’re disappointed not to be able to do that,” Bowersox said of the Starliner CFT.

NASA and Boeing knew about a helium leak on Starliner’s service module—the spacecraft’s expendable component—prior to the mission but took a calculated risk in authorizing it. During the vehicle’s approach to the ISS on June 6, crews discovered four more leaks, which officials said have stabilized.

The bigger issue lies with the service module’s reaction control system (RCS) thrusters, made by Boeing contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne. During Starliner’s deorbit burn, they will be required to align the spacecraft with its landing spot. Five of these thrusters failed to fire at full strength during its rendezvous with the ISS. All but one of them, which has been deactivated, are back to normal after testing, NASA said.

But the agency has struggled to trace the root cause of the problem. It delayed Crew-9 in order to perform ground testing at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, putting an identical RCS thruster through the same maneuvers that affected Starliner on orbit.

Throughout the process, officials insisted that Starliner—not Dragon—would be the astronauts’ ride home. But their tone changed in August, when engineers theorized that extreme heat from the thrusters caused a seal to expand, blocking the flow of propellant and dimming the flames.

“We are clearly operating this thruster at a higher temperature at times than it was designed for,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

The thruster issue ultimately traces back to a design flaw with the “doghouses” that insulate the hardware from space. These pods—which each house several thrusters—are retaining too much heat during more intense maneuvers. Engineers thought they had addressed the issue following Starliner’s second uncrewed test flight, which reached the ISS but suffered similar RCS thruster problems.

“We thought, obviously, we had done enough analysis to show that the thrusters would be within the temperatures that they were qualified for,” said Stich. “Clearly, there were some misses in qualification.”

Officials on Saturday concluded, unanimously, that there is enough risk of the problem resurfacing during the deorbit burn to pivot to Dragon. But it wasn’t without pushback from Boeing, which according to Bowersox held “tense discussions” with NASA.

“We view the data and the uncertainty that’s there differently than Boeing does,” said Jim Free, associate administrator of NASA.

Boeing officials including Mark Nappi, vice president and manager of the company’s Commercial Crew program, repeatedly downplayed the severity of the thruster issues over the past two months. On August 2, the firm even made a blog post reiterating its confidence in Starliner and summarizing the testing that had been performed.

Ultimately, though, NASA said it has learned from the missteps of the space shuttle Columbia and Challenger catastrophes and decided to err on the side of caution.

“We lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward,” said Nelson. “We have been very solicitous of all of our employees that if you have some objection, you come forward.”

What’s Next?

Bringing Starliner home uncrewed undoubtedly deals a blow to Boeing, despite officials’ assurance that the capsule will soon fly again. Nelson said he is “100 percent certain” the spacecraft will carry crew on future missions.

“Starliner is a very capable spacecraft and, ultimately, this comes down to needing a higher level of certainty to perform a crewed return,” said Stich.

When those missions will launch, however, is anyone’s guess. The spacecraft’s debut service mission, Starliner-1, is scheduled for August 2025 after its initial February window was given to SpaceX’s Crew-10. But that date could be jeopardized by further NASA requirements, including—potentially—another CFT.

Officials on Saturday did not commit to that. But Stich in July said NASA and Boeing “understand it’s going to take a little bit longer” to certify the spacecraft than previously thought. Officials this month said they were unsure whether NASA would classify the CFT as a mishap, which would require a more thorough investigation.

Any delay could jeopardize Starliner’s ability to fulfill its contract before the ISS is retired by NASA and SpaceX at the end of the decade. Per Ars Technica, the agency has only placed firm orders for three missions and can purchase individual flights from Boeing or SpaceX as needed.

Keeping the program on track will likely come down to Boeing, which is on the hook for any redesigns required to address Starliner’s helium leaks and faulty thrusters.

“They’ve spent ‘X.’ Will they spend ‘Y’ to get to where Boeing Starliner becomes a regular part of our crew rotation?” said Nelson. “I don’t have the answer to that, nor do I think we would have the answer now.”

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The jets are owned by billionaire entrepreneur and Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman, who purchased the five-day orbital mission and two other private astronaut flights from SpaceX in 2022. Among other feats, Polaris Dawn will ascend to orbital heights not reached since the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972 and feature the first attempt at a commercial spacewalk.

“The idea is to develop and test new technology and operations in furtherance of SpaceX’s bold vision to enable humankind to journey among the stars,” Isaacman said during a mission overview briefing on Monday.

But with those feats comes a degree of risk. At their apex, the astronauts will travel through a portion of the hazardous Van Allen radiation belts. And because the Dragon spacecraft that will carry the crew has no airlock, all four astronauts will be exposed to the vacuum of space during the historic spacewalk.

Polaris Dawn is scheduled to launch no earlier than 3:38 a.m. EDT on Monday within a four-hour window from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A. Earlier this week, the Dragon capsule was transported to the pad, where teams are mating it with a Falcon 9 booster that will make its fourth flight.

Joining Isaacman will be mission pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a longtime friend and coworker of the Shift4 Payments CEO. Poteet served as mission director for Inspiration4, a 2021 orbital mission—also purchased from SpaceX by Isaacman—that featured the first all-civilian crew.

Accompanying them will be the first SpaceX employees to actually fly to space—mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Gillis, a SpaceX engineer and astronaut trainer, has prepared several NASA crews that have reached the final frontier and was Isaacman’s instructor for Inspiration4. Menon, the company’s lead space operations engineer, will also serve as Polaris Dawn’s medical officer.

This week, crewmembers will conduct a refresher on the mission’s nearly 40 planned experiments, dry dress rehearsal, and launch readiness review. They will spend a maximum of five days orbiting the Earth before splashing down at one of seven locations off the coast of Florida.

Great Heights

Polaris Dawn will waste no time achieving its objectives, beginning with a historic climb on day one.

Hitching a ride on Falcon 9, Dragon will reach space in about 10 minutes and within hours will begin to pass through the inner regions of the Van Allen Belts—a treacherous zone where the risk of damage from radiation is high.

“The Earth’s magnetosphere traps the high energy radiation particles and shields the Earth from the solar storms and the constantly streaming solar wind that can damage technology as well as people living on Earth,” according to NASA. “These trapped particles form two belts of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, that surround the Earth like enormous donuts.”

Dragon will ascend to an oval orbit with an apogee of 870 miles, more than three times higher than the International Space Station. It would be the highest orbital altitude reached by humans in half a century.

“Generally speaking, vehicles don’t like radiation, so that’s why we’re going to stay there for the shortest amount of time that’s necessary to gather the data we want,” said Isaacman.

In that time, however, the crew will perform plenty of experiments, leveraging the unique high-radiation environment to potentially learn from it. The Polaris program and SpaceX have partnered with more than 30 institutions around the world to perform the research, which will focus largely on human health.

“We are born into 1G,” said Menon. “When you go into 0G, whether it’s for five days or a nine-month trip to Mars, things change. You have bone density loss, you have vision changes, you have severe motion sickness, and we don’t have answers for all of that.”

To search for them, the astronauts will don special contact lenses that measure the pressure inside of their eyes and will test ways to reduce the disorientation experienced when returning to Earth, for example.

Research will continue throughout the mission. On the fourth day, the crew will test out a specially designed communication system in Dragon’s trunk, which will use laser beams to communicate with SpaceX Starlink satellites as they zip through space. According to Gillis, the demonstration will be livestreamed and worth tuning into, though she did not get into specifics.

Polaris Dawn is also a charitable endeavor, aiming to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Menon, for example, will debut a children’s book she wrote, the proceeds for which will go to cancer research, during day two of the flight. The SpaceX engineer said the company has installed Starlink terminals at hospitals nationwide to support remote medicine capabilities.

And in a fundraising partnership with Doritos, Polaris Dawn’s cargo will include a container of chips. According to its website, the initiative has raised $500,000. But there won’t be any sticky fingers—the classic Doritos “dust” has been replaced by a special oil-based coating designed to retain flavor.

Isaacman on Monday said Polaris Dawn has already raised “millions” for St. Jude and that he plans to continue the partnership for the Polaris II and Polaris III missions. Inspiration4 raised more than a quarter of a billion for the charity.

Suit Up

Reaching the Van Allen Belts would be a huge feat. But that’s arguably the second-most important—and risky—mission objective.

On the third day of the flight, two of the astronauts will don specially designed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits and exit Dragon. They will remain attached to the spacecraft—at one point by just their feet—using mobility aids to maneuver around. The vehicle will be oriented to shield the crew from direct sunlight.

The entire process, from venting to repressurization, will take about two hours and will be livestreamed. Each astronaut will spend 15 to 20 minutes outside the capsule.

“It will look like we’re doing a little bit of a dance,” said Isaacman, “…[but] we’re going through a test matrix on the suit. And the idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about this suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions.”

But there’s a catch: Dragon does not have an airlock, which means all four crewmembers will be exposed to the vacuum of space.

To remedy this, they will perform a process known as “pre-breathing” beginning just one hour after reaching orbit. The procedure will acclimate the astronauts to a low-pressure environment by gradually reducing the pressure inside the capsule. According to Menon, the idea is to “slowly pull nitrogen out of our body and reduce our risk of decompression sickness.”

On the day of the spacewalk, their spacesuits will be pressurized with 100 percent oxygen for a final pre-breathe. The entire process will take about 45 hours.

Per Isaacman, the spacewalk portion of Polaris Dawn took up the bulk of mission planning, in part due to the development of SpaceX’s EVA suits.

The suits are an evolution of the company’s current apparel, which is designed to be worn only inside Dragon. The upgraded digs feature added mobility and materials pulled from Falcon 9’s trunk and interstage. A 3D-printed helmet includes a heads-up display, which shows spacesuit pressure, temperature, and humidity, as well as a clock to track the astronauts’ time in the void. The suit’s temperature can even be controlled using a dial.

“You might think that we would be extremely cold out in the vacuum of space, and actually we’re more concerned about being too warm,” said Menon.

The suits have undergone an “incredibly expensive testing campaign” with the crew, which has spent about 100 hours wearing them. Because the hardware is “constantly evolving,” per Menon, it could not be tested in a pool. Instead, the astronauts used special harnesses to simulate weightlessness and wore heavy down suits—the kind you’d need at the top of Mount Everest—over their EVA suits.

“We’re really trying to create an environment that doesn’t have convection, looking at thermals, looking at what we’ll actually experience in these suits,” said Menon. “We’ve covered everything from lifecycle testing, pressure testing, [micrometeoroid and orbital debris] testing, extreme hot and cold testing, [and] an entire campaign on [electrostatic discharge] and flammability testing.”

That level of rigor extended to the Dragon capsule, which itself required a few key modifications for the mission. SpaceX added a nitrogen repressurization system, for example, and made upgrades to the spacecraft’s environmental sensors and life support system.

“This includes adding a lot more oxygen to the spacecraft so we can feed oxygen to four suits through umbilicals for the full duration of the spacewalk,” said Menon.

Outside Dragon’s hatch, engineers installed what SpaceX calls the Skywalker, a structure that will help the astronauts find their footing in zero gravity. Atop the Skywalker is a new camera that will capture footage of the spacewalk. Handholds and footholds were added to the capsule’s interior.

In addition, all of that hardware has been “baked out” in a thermal vacuum chamber, Menon said, to burn off chemicals that could produce toxic gas when the capsule is vented.

Thousands of Hours

The astronauts have already prepared extensively for the spacewalk. They recently walked through the entire prebreathe process and venting and repressurization sequence, for example, inside the vacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg.

“I can tell you without a doubt this has been some of the most challenging training that I’ve ever experienced, and I could not imagine a more qualified crew than these three individuals,” said Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and member of the Thunderbirds.

The astronauts performed zero-gravity flights in the vacuum chamber, trained in a centrifuge to experience g-forces, and spent time in an altitude chamber to get familiar with symptoms of hypoxia—a condition caused by low oxygen levels in the body. The crew also used a pressure chamber to practice many of the experiments they will conduct in space back on Earth. Gillis and Menon underwent medical training at partner hospitals to be qualified to care for the team.

Each crewmember also spent about 2,000 hours in a simulator, poring over spacecraft and system manuals, communication methods, crew resource management, and contingency scenarios.

“To put this into perspective, I flew fighters for 20 years—I accomplished about 1,500 hours in the simulator training for combat,” said Poteet.

Another key component of training was, as Poteet put it, “getting comfortable in uncomfortable scenarios.” Over the past few years, the crew has gone scuba diving and skydiving, flown fighter jets, and even summited Cotopaxi in Ecuador, a nearly 20,000-foot peak.

“When it’s a multiday journey to get to the summit, you’re dehydrated, you’re hungry, you’re grouchy…it sucks,” said Poteet. “And you learn a lot about yourself under this stressful environment, and you learn a lot about each other.”

‘The 737 for Human Spaceflight’

Though it was purchased by an outside stakeholder, Polaris Dawn has some major implications for SpaceX.

For one, it will be the company’s first mission with crew since Falcon 9 was grounded by the FAA in July. The rocket was quickly cleared for a return to action and has since completed several Starlink launches.

But the mission’s success—or lack thereof—could also inform the timeline of SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.

Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions purchased by Isaacman. Little is known about the second, Polaris II, which will also use Dragon and Falcon 9. But Polaris III is intended to be the debut human spaceflight mission for Starship, which so far has completed four orbital test flights.

“It could very well be the [Boeing] 737 for human spaceflight someday,” said Isaacman. “But it’ll certainly be the vehicle that will return humans to the moon and then on to Mars and beyond.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has grand ambitions for Starship, such as ferrying humans to Mars in order to create a colony. But they will hinge on the company remaining on schedule—and, hopefully, learning as much as possible about its EVA spacesuits during Polaris Dawn.

Within one week of Dragon’s splashdown, the firm plans to host a Polaris Dawn mission debrief and question-and-answer session on X Spaces.

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