Good Monday morning, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero, and I hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend. Over the break, we learned when four people could launch on a mission that will include the first civilians to conduct a spacewalk.
Polaris Dawn is the new all-private astronaut mission commanded by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, who funded 2021′s Inspiration4. That was an incredibly fun mission to cover given it was the first all-civilian SpaceX crew and that well over $200 million was raised for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
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Now, Jared returns to fly a Dragon capsule with another pilot, Scott Poteet, and two SpaceX engineers, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. This time, in new space suits, Jared and Sarah will attempt the first commercial spacewalk when they float outside Dragon for about two hours.
Polaris Dawn also includes 38 science experiments for the crew to study the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. Launching on a Falcon 9, the crew plans to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown by a crewed spacecraft, breaking a record dating back to the 1960s under the Gemini program.
By the way, it’s also going to be the first crewed launch for SpaceX from Pad 40, not 39a. In the last year, SpaceX added a crew access arm to the pad.
If successful, Polaris Dawn is scheduled to be the first of three missions under the Polaris Program. The second would also fly on Dragon, but the third could be the first crewed mission on Starship!
Our coverage will continue as we get closer to launch!
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👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!