If you're feeling overwhelmed by the craziness on this planet, take a look at these four astronauts who are peering into God's vast Creation this morning on a historic mission that will pave the way for humans to visit Mars in 4 years:
From SpaceX:
On Tuesday, September 10 at 5:23 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched Polaris Dawn to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following stage separation, Falcon 9's first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Polaris Dawn mission objectives are to reach higher Earth orbit than any human since the Apollo moon missions (which ended in 1972) and to conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
The astronauts will also conduct 36 other experiments while in orbit that are "designed to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight," in addition to testing Starlink's laser-based communications in space.
These objectives are crucial for CEO Elon Musk's goal of sending unmanned vehicles to Mars within 2 years and manned crews in 4 years. This makes SpaceX, a private company, the only competitor to China, which is planning a Mars mission in 2028.
NASA, meanwhile, remains focused on the Artemis program started under President Trump in 2017 with plans to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, with the first lunar landing in late 2026. The program aims to establish a moon base for support in sending humans to Mars.
The astronauts onboard the current Polaris Dawn mission are Jared Isaacman (mission commander), Kidd Poteet (pilot), Sarah Gillis (specialist), and Anna Menon (medical officer).
From Space.com:
'We wouldn't be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back home and everyone else cheering us on,' billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who commands and funds Polaris Dawn, told SpaceX mission control shortly after Crew Dragon deployed into orbit. 'We appreciate it. We're gonna get to work now.'
Polaris Dawn will fly to an altitude (apogee) of 870 miles (the highest apogee of the International Space Station is just under 300 miles).
The crew will spend 5 days in space, but will return to a lower orbit of 435 miles after two days, where the crew will attempt the first commercial spacewalk in custom suits designed by SpaceX.
We'll have more updates and videos as they get released. In the meantime, you can follow the track of the Dragon spacecraft and the Polaris Dawn crew here.
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