The Polaris program is a private spaceflight program organized by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. Building on his experience as commander of the Inspiration4 mission—the first all-civilian spaceflight—Isaacman contracted with SpaceX to establish Polaris. The program involves two missions using SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and is planned to culminate in the first crewed launch on Starship.
The Polaris Dawn mission propelled Isaacman and his crew of three—Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon—to an elliptic orbit on 10 September 2024 that took them up to 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) away from Earth, the farthest anyone has been from the planet since NASA's Apollo program, so that they pass through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body.[1] Later in the mission, with a lower apogee, Isaacman and Gillis successfully completed the first commercial spacewalk and tested the mobility and functionality of SpaceX's EVA spacesuit.[3]
The second mission in the Polaris Program will launch via a Falcon 9 Block 5 vehicle with a Crew Dragon capsule. SpaceX and Polaris had studied a crewed mission to lift the Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit to prevent it from burning up in the atmosphere,[4][5] but this option was rejected by NASA in June 2024.[6] Data obtained through Polaris Dawn will inform the objectives and timing of Mission II.[6]
The third Polaris mission is set to be the first crewed launch on Starship, SpaceX's next-generation launch system.[6] Starship is in early flight testing as of September 2024 and is expected to carry crew after making at least 100 successful cargo flights, though this is not a firm requirement.[7] This is the final listed flight of the Polaris Program.[8][9]
^Foust, Jeff (8 February 2023). "Shotwell says SpaceX ready for Starship static-fire test". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024. Retrieved 15 September 2024. [Shotwell] said she expected Starship to fly at least 100 times before it carries people for the first time [...] In her later conversation with reporters, she called that 100-flight milestone a "great goal" but suggested it was not a requirement.
