Jared Isaacman orders three more SpaceX launches, including first crewed Starship
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The billionaire entrepreneur who flew SpaceX's first all-civilian mission to orbit last year has commissioned the company for three more missions, including the first crewed flight of Starship.
Jared Isaacman is working with SpaceX on the Polaris Program, named after the North Star, that more or less operates as a private crewed spaceflight program. Polaris' first two missions are slated to fly on Crew Dragon capsules starting late this year followed by a third on Starship, the SpaceX vehicle that will eventually take humans to the moon and Mars.
Included in the program so far are Isaacman (commander) and three astronauts-to-be: Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both engineers at SpaceX; and Scott Poteet, a former Air Force pilot and mission director for Isaacman's Inspiration4 mission last September. Gillis and Menon join as mission specialists and Poteet as a pilot.
The first mission, set to launch from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year, is Polaris Dawn: a Falcon 9 rocket will boost the crew of four to push the altitude limits of Crew Dragon, conduct the first ever commercial spacewalk, work on health and science experiments, and test SpaceX's Starlink internet network's ability to relay communications.
"The Polaris Program is an important step in advancing human space exploration while helping to solve problems through the use of innovative technology here on Earth," Isaacman said in a Monday release. "On Polaris Dawn, we endeavor to achieve the highest Earth orbit ever flown in addition to conducting the world’s first commercial spacewalk and testing of Starlink laser-based communication."
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Because it includes a spacewalk, Polaris Dawn will be the first time SpaceX demonstrates its extravehicular activity, or EVA, suit. Spacesuits are a challenging area of engineering as their complexity often rivals that of the main spacecraft itself – even NASA's own suits for the moon-focused Artemis program are one of the reasons behind schedule delays.
"There's a fantastic team of brilliant engineers working on this spacesuit and it'll be really exciting to work together," Menon told FLORIDA TODAY during a Monday teleconference with reporters. "As their design unfolds, we'll be certain to share more details as we get to that point."
Isaacman echoed Menon's comments and said widely available, effective EVA suits are critical to the future of spaceflight, especially as eyes turn to the moon and Mars. Testing the suits are a critical mission objective for the first Polaris mission, he said.
Because Crew Dragon doesn’t have a dedicated airlock, all four crew members will need to don their pressurized suits as air is evacuated from the capsule. It was not immediately clear which of the four would actually exit the capsule for the spacewalk.
Polaris' second mission will also fly Crew Dragon but the third will mark the first crewed flight of Starship, SpaceX's next-generation rocket being prototyped in Texas. Elon Musk sees Starship as the system that will take humans to the moon and Mars, deploy larger payloads, and bring down costs.
The Starship mission could fly from either Texas or KSC since SpaceX has plans to use both locations for the massive rocket, but details are not yet available. More on Polaris' second and third missions are expected later this year.
On a call with reporters Monday, Isaacman said the program is fully funded thanks to contributions from himself and SpaceX. Costs and other financial details were not released.
In September, Isaacman and three others – Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski – launched from KSC on Inspiration4, the first mission crewed entirely by non-professional astronauts. It raised more than $240 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Polaris will continue the focus on St. Jude through awareness and fundraising campaigns.
Isaacman is the founder and CEO of Shift4, a publicly-traded payments processing company he founded when he was 18.
Contact Emre Kelly at [email protected] or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Jared Isaacman orders three more SpaceX launches, including Starship
