SpaceX's 'Polaris Dawn' Mission Delayed, First Private Spacewalk Affected

TapTechNews August 27th news, SpaceX tweeted on the X platform yesterday (August 26th) to announce the delay of the Polaris Dawn mission, meaning the first private spacewalk plan will be delayed by a few days.

SpaceX said the main reason for this delay is the helium leak. TapTechNews translated the official tweet content as follows:

The team has carefully inspected the helium leak on the ground side. The investigation results show that the Falcon and Dragon are still healthy, and the crew continues to be ready to execute the multi-day low-Earth orbit mission.

The next launch opportunity needs to wait until after Wednesday, August 28th.

The launch time of the Falcon 9 rocket is 3:38 am Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 28th (15:38 Beijing time), but there are also two standby opportunities that day - 5:23 am Eastern Time (17:23 Beijing time) and 7:09 am Eastern Time (19:09 Beijing time).

TapTechNews note: Polaris Dawn is the first mission in the Polaris Program funded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. This mission will transport Isaacman, Scott Kid Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon on a five-day Earth orbit journey.

Polaris Dawn will conduct the first private spacewalk by humans and will fly at a height of 435 miles (700 kilometers) from the Earth, which is farther than any manned mission since the Apollo era. Gillis and Menon will also become the furthest women to go deep into space.

The upcoming mission will be Isaacman's second space flight. He commanded and funded the Inspiration 4 Earth orbit journey in September 2021. Like Inspiration 4, Polaris Dawn will also be an independent spacecraft, flying around the Earth independently instead of docking with the International Space Station (ISS).