While the launch date was still set, it was getting questionable if Polaris Dawn would actually be launching on July 12. Wednesday, the program announced a new launch date of July 31.
Polaris Dawn is the first mission of the Polaris Program, funded and commanded by Inspiration4’s Jared Issacman. The mission has been highly anticipated as it will feature the first commercial spacewalk and new spacesuits built by SpaceX to support these operations.
The mission has been long delayed with the most recent launch date being July 12, however there were signs that launch wasn’t going to happen. Actually, it slipped my mind entirely that the launch date was July 12 until the day before the mission announced its new July 31 date.
Safe to assume that if you’re a week out from your launch date and there’s been no word from any of its members about preparing for launch, then that date probably isn’t happening.
Issacman shared on Wednesday that they have reach a “critical milestone” with SpaceX to get the mission ready to launch but didn’t elaborate what that milestone was. However, it was enough to give a new launch date just a couple weeks later than previously planned.
The Polaris Program has two main objectives: Push SpaceX’s ability to development human exploration technology and raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. A further mission by Polaris will see the use of SpaceX’s Starship rocket but sadly no longer is planned a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
More updates and coverage will come of Polaris Dawn as we await their arrival at Kennedy Space Center, Florida before launch.
