SpaceX is targeting Tuesday (Aug. 27) for the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission, which will take a Crew Dragon spacecraft to its highest orbit and feature the first-ever private spacewalk. Here’s how you can watch the historic action live.
Polaris Dawn will send four people to Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, during a four-hour window that opens at 3:38 a.m. ET (0738 GMT). Launch was originally targeted for Monday (Aug. 26), but SpaceX pushed it back a day to perform additional checkouts.
Both the launch and the spacewalk, which is scheduled for Flight Day 3 of the mission (about Aug. 29 or so), will be livestreamed on Polaris Dawn’s and SpaceX’s feed on X. The launch webcast will begin about one hour before liftoff. Cameras will capture the launch from the ground, from the exterior of the rocket and from inside the Crew Dragon capsule. You can also watch along with a live webcast hosted on Space.com.
The Polaris Dawn crew consists of billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who funded and will command the mission; pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel; and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom are SpaceX engineers.
Related: How SpaceX’s private Polaris Dawn astronauts will attempt the 1st-ever ‘all-civilian’ spacewalk
During the five-day mission, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will reach its highest-ever orbit, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth. This is about 185 miles (300 km) above the International Space Station, to which Crew Dragons usually dock on NASA astronaut missions.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned crewed missions in the Polaris Program, which Isaacman is funding and leading. On the second day of Polaris Dawn, Isaacman and Gillis will perform a two-hour spacewalk to test a newly designed spacesuit in the vacuum of space. The crew will also complete a number of science and technology tests while in orbit.
Make sure to follow along with the mission on the livestream hosted on Space.com, and check back for updates on the mission. A live webcast with the crew will also be available following their return to Earth.
