The privately funded space project ‘Polaris Dawn’ has reached its maximum altitude of 1,400 kilometers above the Earth. This was announced by the space company SpaceX on Wednesday evening via X (formerly Twitter).
According to SpaceX, this altitude is the greatest distance humans have traveled to Earth since NASA’s last Apollo missions to the moon in the early 1970s.
For comparison, the ISS space station is at an altitude of about 400 kilometers. In 1966, NASA astronauts were already in an orbit that was very similar to that of ‘Polaris Dawn’: with ‘Gemini 11’ they reached an altitude of exactly 1,374 kilometers.
SpaceX founder Musk remained grounded
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is leading the mission, which will last up to five days, in coordination with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who will remain on the ground. Along with Isaacman, private astronauts Kidd Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon blasted off Tuesday morning aboard a “Crew Dragon” capsule aboard a “Falcon 9” rocket from Cape Canaveral spaceport on Florida’s west coast (see video above).
Outdoor use planned at an altitude of 700 km
During the mission, the astronauts will conduct an external mission at an altitude of 700 kilometers, where the private company SpaceX aims to test a new spacesuit for external missions.
During the “first commercial spacewalk” – as it’s called on the project’s website – the suit is intended to provide greater mobility than previous suits. It also features a display built into the helmet, a camera and new materials for better thermal regulation in frigid environments.
Source: Krone
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