Space travel SpaceX sends astronauts into 1400-kilometer-high orbit

This Wednesday morning (9.38 a.m. CEST), the private space travel company SpaceX plans to launch astronauts into a particularly high orbit around the Earth for the first time.

In the "Polaris Dawn" mission, which is planned for a maximum of five days, the four crew members will travel up to 1,400 kilometers from Earth after the launch from Cape Canaveral Spaceport. According to SpaceX, this is the greatest distance between humans and Earth since the last Apollo missions to the moon in the early 1970s. By comparison, the International Space Station (ISS) is located at an altitude of around 400 kilometers.

Spacewalk planned

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who is organizing the mission in coordination with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, is the commander of "Polaris Dawn". Astronauts Kidd Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon will fly into space with Isaacman in the "Dragon" spacecraft using a "Falcon 9" rocket. During the mission, the astronauts will also perform their first spacewalk, during which the private space company wants to test a new space suit for outdoor missions. During the "first commercial spacewalk" - as it says on the project's website - the suit is intended to ensure greater mobility. It also features a display built into the helmet, a camera and new materials for better heat regulation in freezing cold space.

Preparing for Mars

The goals of "Polaris Dawn" go far beyond Earth orbit: "Millions of spacesuits are needed to build a base on the moon and a city on Mars," the project explains. "Developing this suit and conducting the spacewalk will be important steps towards a scalable spacesuit design for future long-term missions as life becomes multi-planetary." A colony on Mars - that is the long-term goal of the US space agency NASA. With the "Artemis" program, however, it first wants to put humans back on the moon - for the first time in more than half a century. A base on the Earth's satellite is to form the basis for missions to Mars. However, due to problems with the rocket and spacecraft, NASA has just had to postpone the manned moon orbit "Artemis 2", which was originally planned for November 2024, to September 2025, and the planned manned moon landing "Artemis 3" to September 2026.

Crew makes 36 experiments

In addition to the spacewalk, the four-person crew will also carry out a series of experiments. According to SpaceX, a total of 36 studies are on the agenda on behalf of 31 partners "to improve human health both on Earth and during long-term space flights". The astronauts will also test a laser-based communication technology of the satellite-based internet program Starlink.

SDA