A SpaceX capsule carrying four private citizens will have to wait to launch into space after a helium leak forced a launch delay until later this week at the earliest.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon were scheduled to launch into space on a mission that was to include the first spacewalk carried out by a civilian crew.
The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, had been scheduled to lift off early Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, SpaceX announced on X that a helium leak delayed the launch until Wednesday at the earliest.
"Teams are taking a closer look at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical," the company wrote. "Falcon and Dragon remain healthy and the crew continues to be ready for their multi-day mission to low-Earth orbit."
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The helium leak was a setback for SpaceX, which has been ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2020. SpaceX carried its first private citizens into orbit in 2021 on a flight that Isaacman also funded and took part in to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The mission’s featured spacewalk is scheduled to occur on the third day. Two crew members are expected to exit the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a tether, but because the spacecraft does not have a pressurized airlock, all four astronauts will don newly designed spacesuits and the entire capsule will be depressurized and exposed to vacuum conditions.
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Previously, only astronauts from government space agencies have ventured into the vacuum of space to build or upgrade space stations in orbit, repair satellites and conduct scientific experiments.
The Crew Dragon capsule is expected to swing up to 870 miles above Earth’s surface, which is more than three times the orbital altitude of the International Space Station and distant enough for it to pass through the inner regions of the Van Allen radiation belt, a zone of high-energy radiation particles trapped by Earth’s magnetosphere.
The Polaris Dawn flight will record the effects of space radiation on the astronauts and the vehicle. The research could help SpaceX plan missions to the moon and Mars, which would require astronauts to fly through the inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned spaceflights that Isaacman is funding and organizing with SpaceX. He has not disclosed the cost of the program or the possible objectives and timing of the other expeditions.
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