Anne Menon, a mission specialist on the recent Polaris Dawn mission, was announced as an astronaut candidate by NASA today in Houston. She joins a growing list of former SpaceX employees who have joined the ranks of NASA’s astronaut corps.
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China is leading this week in launches, but SpaceX is set (already has by publishing this) to launch yet another major ESA mission over using domestic options. Rocket Lab will also make a showing this week with a… family-specific mission name.
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Early Thursday morning, the crew of the Polaris Dawn mission completed its second major milestone with the completion of SpaceX‘s first commercial spacewalk. This marks another step towards SpaceX’s goal to colonize Mars using their own tech.
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Early this morning, the Polaris Dawn mission reached 1,400 km above Earth’s surface. This marks the highest spaceflight since the Apollo missions and beats the records set during NASA’s Gemini program in the 1960s.
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This week, SpaceX is set to launch the first mission of the Polaris Program, named “Polaris Dawn,” marking a significant milestone in the evolution of human space exploration. This Crew Dragon mission, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who previously commanded the private all-civilian Inspiration4 mission, is designed to push the boundaries of what is possible in space. The Polaris Program is a series of human spaceflight missions focused on advancing technology, conducting cutting-edge scientific research, and preparing for future deep space missions.
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On Monday, the four members of the Polaris Dawn crew arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center ahead of its launch next week. The crew will finish up their training at SpaceX’s facilities at the cape as they prepare to push what is possible by commercial spaceflight.
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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.
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Things are slowly falling into place for the Polaris Program‘s first mission, Polaris Dawn. The mission is nearing milestones that might finally give it a launch date that will actually hold.
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Announced in February, Jared Issacman’s Polaris Program crew has been training for a flight on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft this year. At EAA’s AirVenture airshow this weekend, Issacman announced that the launch date for Polaris Dawn could be as soon as the end of this year.
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In a Tweet last year, Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink laser-based communication was coming to SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Now we know the Polaris Dawn mission will be the first crew to test out and make use of this additional connectivity option. And as Starlink continues to expand, with plans for Gen2 Starlink satellites launched on Starship being essential for the company, NASA has expressed some concerns about the expanding constellation.
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Today, a great deal of news about the future tourism flights of SpaceX came to light, led by none other than Billionaire Jared Isaacman. After commanding Inspiration4 last year, Isaacman will return as commander of a daring first of its kind Dragon mission, flying higher and staying longer than Inspiration4 did.
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