Good Monday morning, friends.
It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero, writing to you from the Kennedy Space Center as I wait on the arrival of the four people planning to become the first to conduct a commercial spacewalk.
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I last updated you a month ago about Polaris Dawn. Now, we could watch Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Mennen launch on a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule as soon as next Monday.
I still frequently think about the first commercial spaceflight Jared commanded, Inspiration 4 in 2021. What an exciting, and true to its name -- inspiring -- mission to cover!
Like Jared, Poteet is a fighter pilot (professionally, for the Air Force). And the two other crew members, Sarah and Anna, are SpaceX engineers.
I’ll give you a little tease to my story on the air today. I’m thinking of asking Sarah and Anna why they think it’s important to take the risk of going to space, too. With Jared and Scott’s backgrounds in aviation, they seem like the more traditional thrill-seekers. I expect Sarah and Anna might answer that if the goal is to open space to all of us, eventually, then they’re proud to be among the early pioneers of that dream.
With the first commercial spacewalk as one of the mission highlights, the crew needed SpaceX to make its first spacesuits for extra-vehicular activities. They will also fly further away from Earth than any astronauts since the last Apollo mission!
The Polaris Dawn mission and its series of future missions are named after the North Star and, fittingly, on next Monday the 26th, the crew could launch at dawn. The launch window runs from 3:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.
I’ll rejoin you today when I talk to the crew!
📧 Have any topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.
👋 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!
📧 Have any topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.
👋 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!