SpaceX saga continues as Polaris Dawn launch postponed again: what happened

SpaceX's historic Polaris Dawn astronaut mission has been postponed again. This is the third postponement of the launch.

This time, it was due to unfavorable weather conditions. The exact date of the launch is not yet known, but it is reported that it will definitely not take place before August 30, Space.com reports.

Polaris Dawn was originally scheduled to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, August 26, but SpaceX postponed the mission for a day to conduct more preflight checks. However, the launch did not take place on August 27 due to a helium leak. And the planned launch on August 28 was disrupted by Mother Nature

"Due to adverse forecast weather in the Dragon tide areas off the coast of Florida, we are suspending tonight and tomorrow's Falcon 9 Polaris Dawn launch. Teams will continue to monitor the weather for favorable launch and return conditions," SpaceX announced.

As a reminder, Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program, which is funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacson. Isaacman, former US Air Force lieutenant colonel and mission pilot Scott Potit, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon will take a five-day trip to Earth's orbit.

It is interesting that Polaris Dawn will be the first space flight for Poteet, Gillis, and Menon. Isaacson was already in orbit in September 2021 as part of the pioneering SpaceX Inspiration4 mission.

The upcoming mission will go down in spaceflight history for several important reasons. First, it will be the first-ever private spacewalk. Secondly, Polaris Dawn aims to send Dragon to a maximum altitude of about 1,400 kilometers - more than any crewed mission since the Apollo era. And thirdly, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon will plunge deeper into the void of space than any women have ever done before. After all, all Apollo astronauts were men.

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