A billionaire has blasted into space for a record-setting mission set to be the world's first private spacewalk.
SpaceX's latest mission — a bold and risky trek into Earth's Van Allen radiation belts by a four-person crew of civilians who will also aim to conduct the first commercial spacewalk — has taken flight.As the capsule entered Earth's orbit, ground controllers, led by SpaceX launch director Frank Messina, offered words of encouragement to the Polaris Dawn crew, which includes the first SpaceX employees ever to venture to space.
This launch comes after several weather delays in late August and earlier in the morning on Tuesday hampered the Polaris Dawn crew's efforts to get off the ground. First, a problem with ground equipment at the launch site pushed the target date by 24 hours, then weather forecasts forced SpaceX to waive off two more attempts.
The latest forecast puts the odds of unfavorable conditions for a Tuesday launch at 60 per cent, according to a post made by SpaceX on X. The crew rode atop the rocket, strapped inside an igloo-shaped SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which measures about four metres across at its base, as the rocket tears away from the grips of Earth's gravity.
When it reached the desired speed, the Crew Dragon broke away, left to navigate the vacuum of space using only its onboard thrusters for the remainder of the mission.Polaris Dawn is the brainchild of SpaceX and Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of financial technology firm Shift4 Payments, who made his first foray into spaceflight with the Inspiration4 mission in September 2021.
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