September 10, 2024 — A commercial space crew has flown higher above Earth than anyone who has traveled since the last Apollo astronauts went to the moon.
The four members of the Polaris Dawn mission, riding aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Resilience,” climbed into an elliptical orbit with a high point, or apogee, of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) on Tuesday (Sep. 10).
“Achievement unlocked — apogee 1,400.7 km,” SpaceX confirmed on its X social media account.
“This is the farthest humans have traveled since the last time humans walked on the moon more than 50 years ago,” said Jared Isaacman, the commander and billionaire sponsor of the Polaris Dawn mission, prior to his launch on Tuesday.
“Two of my crew members, Sarah [Gillis] and Anna [Menon], will be the women who have traveled farthest from Earth ever, which I think is pretty cool.”
The Polaris Dawn flight is the first of three commercial missions planned by Isaacman to advance research and technology needed to send humans further out into the solar system.
Gemini 11 astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Richard “Dick” Gordon did not live to see their record broken (Conrad died in 1999 and Gordon in 2017).
The Polaris Dawn crew used the Dragon’s integrated Draco thrusters to do the same.
As a nod to the 1966 mission, the Polaris Dawn crew has with them at least one medallion struck with a design similar to the Gemini 11 patch.
The Polaris Dawn astronauts have already sold the flown medallion at auction to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
September 10, 2024.
— Since the last Apollo astronauts visited the moon, a commercial space crew has flown higher above the planet than any previous crew.
Tuesday, September 26, marks the ascent into an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) by the four members of the Polaris Dawn mission aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Resilience.”. 10. About 15 hours after taking off at 5:23 a.m., they arrived at the record distance. me. EDT (0923 GMT) from Florida earlier in the day and making eight orbits around the planet, with the first one measuring 190 by 1,200 miles (306 by 1,930 km).
On its X social media account, SpaceX verified, “Achievement unlocked — apogee 1,400.7 km.”.
The crew’s top altitude surpassed the previous record for a crewed spacecraft remaining in Earth orbit, set by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966, and more than doubled the maximum height that the space shuttle reached when it deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 (853 miles/1,373 km).
Before his launch on Tuesday, Polaris Dawn mission commander and billionaire sponsor Jared Isaacman declared, “This is the furthest humans have traveled since the last time humans walked on the moon more than 50 years ago.”. In my opinion, it’s pretty cool that two of my crew members, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, will hold the record for the longest distance traveled by women from Earth. Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet is the crew’s fourth member. ).
The high flight was accomplished more for data collection purposes than for bragging rights; it was a test of how the space environment affected human health and spacecraft systems. Parts of the Van Allen belt, which envelops Earth and shields it from the majority of solar radiation and cosmic rays, are resilient.
Isaacman has three commercial missions planned to advance the science and technology needed to send humans farther into space, the first of which is the Polaris Dawn flight.
He said, “You’re dealing with totally different realities when you go into this environment than, say, when you would go to the [International] space station.”. The vehicle is putting a lot of energy into it. Exhausting yourself in the car after you get home requires a lot of energy. The radiation environment is different. The orbital debris and micrometeorite environment is distinct. Regarding research, science, and human health, we can learn a great deal from that. ****.
He stated, “We’d love to be able to return to Mars someday and be healthy enough to tell people about it.”.
The information gathered will also assist SpaceX in improving the design of its upcoming vehicles. System interference from radiation can occur in spacecraft. For example, touchscreens and other contemporary digital displays have never been subjected to such levels of exposure while on a mission before.
Resilience was designed to spend as little as 10 hours at altitude, which is the minimum required to obtain the necessary data, in response to the risks. After that, it was to descend into an orbit that measured 190 by 700 kilometers (118 by 435 miles).
Conrad (deceased in 1999) and Gordon (deceased in 2017) were the two Gemini 11 astronauts who did not live to see their records surpassed. By initially locating and docking with an Agena target vehicle, they were able to increase their altitude by utilizing the rocket engine of the latter to elevate their orbit. The Dragon’s built-in Draco thrusters were utilized by the Polaris Dawn crew in a similar manner.
In the case of Polaris Dawn, this will be the first spacewalk conducted by a commercial crew. Isaacman, Poteet, Gillis, and Menon, like Conrad and Gordon, intend to return to Earth after reaching a record altitude.
At least one medallion bearing a design resembling the Gemini 11 patch is carried by the Polaris Dawn crew as a tribute to the 1966 mission. In the updated version, a spacewalker wearing a SpaceX spacesuit takes the place of Gordon participating in one of his extravehicular activities (EVAs) and the Gemini-Agena vehicle is replaced with a Dragon capsule.
The flown medallion has already been sold by the Polaris Dawn astronauts at auction to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Center.
