Elon Musk led SpaceX has announced a delay in the launch of Polaris Dawn, a mission which would reportedly feature the first ever private spacewalk.
During a press conference, SpaceX said that it was mainly focused upon the upcoming Crew-9 astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, it would launch by August 18.
Polaris Dawn, which is a mission funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman and will be carried out by SpaceX, has been postponed to next month, sometime after the launch of Crew-9 for NASA.
“There’s a lot going on on ISS right now, we opted to fly the Crew-9 mission as our next [astronaut] mission and are ready to fly Polaris Dawn in late summer, as soon as we fulfill those obligations,” said SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker.
Walker further clarified her statement of “late summer” and said that according to their (SpaceX) current plan, Polaris Dawn would be launched in August. Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions and all are funded by Isaacman.
Isaacman posted his reaction over the development on X and said, “Turns out we have a little bit of time before Polaris Dawn launches, so I will be attending in person. Thanks for the invite Tesla.”
The Polaris Dawn will be flying into space with a crew of four members. Pilot Scott Poteet, who is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and mission specialists who are also engineers at SpaceX, Sarah Gills and Anna Menon.
The Polaris Dawn has been facing delays and postponement for the past two years. The first launch was slated in 2022 but it was delayed.
The reason for the current delay is being touted as a leak of liquid oxygen.
(with inputs from Space.com)
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First uploaded on: 30-07-2024 at 07:08 IST
