Isaacman, Jared (1983- )

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    SpaceX Polaris Dawn Spacewalk: How to Watch the Astronauts

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    The astronauts of the Polaris Dawn mission, after traveling through heavy radiation and high orbits, are getting ready to open the hatch of their SpaceX vehicle.Early Thursday morning, four private astronauts circling far above Earth will try something daring — let all the air out of their spacecraft.That will be a prelude for two of the astronauts, who will then venture outside for the first commercial spacewalk ever, an event that is to be the highlight of the Polaris Dawn mission led by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur.When is the spacewalk and how can I watch it?The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 2:23 a.m. Eastern time. SpaceX plans to broadcast live coverage starting one hour before the spacewalk begins.If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday at the same time.What will happen during the spacewalk?Because there is no airlock in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft used for the flight, the only way to perform a spacewalk is to let all the air out of the spacecraft, and then open one of the hatches. That requires all four crew members to wear spacesuits.NASA and Soviet astronauts conducted spacewalks in a similar manner in the 1960s.As the Crew Dragon swings around Earth in an elliptical orbit that swings as close as 120 miles to the surface and as high as 460 miles, Mr. Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, will exit the capsule for about 15 to 20 minutes each.They will pass through the hatch at the top of the Crew Dragon with the help of a handrail that SpaceX has named Skywalker, moving around carefully and deliberately. The two will not be outside the spacecraft at the same time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Polaris Dawn Astronauts in SpaceX Dragon Reach Record Orbit Above Earth

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      After launching early on Tuesday, the billionaire Jared Isaacman and his crew traveled to altitudes not visited by any astronaut since the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and ’70s.Four private astronauts aboard an ambitious space mission led by a billionaire entrepreneur traveled farther from Earth on Tuesday than any other human being in more than half a century.Two of them, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, have now gone farther from the planet than any other women ever.The mission, named Polaris Dawn, lifted off through a break of favorable weather before sunrise on Tuesday. The flight had been grounded for nearly two weeks by unsettled weather in and around Florida.The astronauts, flying an elliptical path around Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, looped outward as far out as 755 miles above the planet’s surface. The mission’s orbits were carefully planned to reduce the hit of radiation the crew would absorb, and to minimize the chances of being struck by tiny bits of rock crisscrossing the solar system.The journey on Tuesday was only a small fraction of the nearly quarter million miles that NASA’s Apollo astronauts traveled to the moon. But after the last mission going there in 1972, humanity has stayed close to our planet, not venturing beyond orbits a few hundred miles up.The Polaris Dawn mission, led by Jared Isaacman, founder of the payment services company Shift4, is a collaboration with SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk. It is the first of three missions designed to spur technological advances needed for Mr. Musk’s ambition to send people to Mars eventually.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More