Polaris program

Polaris
Program overview
CountryUnited States
OrganizationSpaceX
StatusAbandoned
Program history
Duration2022–2025
Launch site
Vehicle information
Crewed vehicles
Launch vehicles

The Polaris program was a private spaceflight program organized by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. Building on his experience as commander of the Inspiration4 mission—the first all-civilian spaceflight—Isaacman contracted with SpaceX to establish Polaris. The program flew the Polaris Dawn mission using SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2024, featuring the first commercial spacewalk, and was originally planned to culminate in the first crewed launch on Starship. After being nominated to be Administrator of NASA, Isaacman cancelled his contract with SpaceX for the additional missions, to remove a potential conflict of interest with one of the agency's biggest contractors.

Flights

Mission nameLaunch date (UTC)Launch vehicleSpacecraftOrbitCrewOutcome
Polaris Dawn (Mission I)10 September 2024, 09:23:49Falcon 9 Block 5Crew Dragon (C207.3 Resilience)LEO, 1,400 km (870 mi) max apogee.Success
Mission IIcancelledFalcon 9 Block 5Crew DragonTBA
 Cancelled
Mission IIIcancelledStarshipStarshipTBA
 Cancelled

Polaris Dawn

On 10 September 2024, The Polaris Dawn mission propelled Isaacman and his crew of three—Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon—to an elliptical orbit 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) away from Earth. This was the furthest anyone had been from Earth since NASA's Apollo program. They passed through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body. Later in the mission, with a lower apogee, Isaacman and Gillis successfully completed the first commercial spacewalk and tested the mobility and functionality of SpaceX's EVA spacesuit.

Mission II

The second mission in the Polaris Program was planned to launch via a Falcon 9 Block 5 vehicle with a Crew Dragon 2 capsule. SpaceX and Polaris had studied a crewed mission to lift the Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit to prevent it from burning up in the atmosphere, but this option was rejected by NASA in June 2024.

Mission III

The third Polaris mission was set to be the first crewed launch on Starship, SpaceX's next-generation launch system. No specific plans were known at the time the program was cancelled.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Foust, Jeff (28 April 2025). "Isaacman revisited". The Space Review. Retrieved 10 October 2026.
  2. 1 2 Berger, Eric (10 September 2024). "Polaris Dawn takes to the skies, setting the stage for a daring private spacewalk". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  3. ↑ "Polaris Dawn". Polaris Dawn. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  4. ↑ Berger, Eric (12 September 2024). "Two private astronauts took a spacewalk Thursday morning—yes, it was historic". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  5. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (29 September 2022). "NASA May Let Billionaire Astronaut and SpaceX Lift Hubble Telescope". Washington Post. Retrieved 25 April 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  6. ↑ Gianopoulos, Andrea (22 December 2022). "NASA, SpaceX to Study Hubble Telescope Reboost Possibility". NASA.gov. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  7. 1 2 Foust, Jeff (15 September 2024). "Crew Dragon splashes down to conclude Polaris Dawn mission". SpaceNews. Retrieved 15 September 2024.