SpaceX postpones historic mission featuring first private spacewalk

SpaceX delays historic all-civilian spacewalk mission due to weather and technical issues, aiming for record-breaking altitude.

SpaceX postponed once more its attempt at launching a daring orbital expedition featuring an all-civilian crew that is aiming to carry out the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens on Tuesday (August 27, 2024).

The Polaris Dawn mission, organized by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, had been set to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a four-hour window early Wednesday (August 28, 2024).

But SpaceX announced it was pushing back the launch plans "due to unfavorable weather forecasted in Dragon's splashdown areas off the coast of Florida," in a message on X (formerly Twitter).

An earlier attempt on Tuesday (August 28, 2024) was scrapped due to a helium leak on a line connecting the tower to the rocket.

Riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket, the SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to reach a peak altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) —higher than any crewed mission in more than half a century, since the Apollo era.

Mission commander Isaacman will guide his four-member team through the mission's centerpiece: the first-ever spacewalk carried out by non-professional astronauts, equipped with sleek, newly developed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits.

Rounding out the team are mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, also a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.