SpaceX has launched its most dangerous journey on Tuesday with his five-day launch Polaris Dawn the mission. Four civilians, incl fintech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who funded the trip, retired Air Force pilot Scott 'Kidd' Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, are aboard the spacecraft, which launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. s in Florida at 5:24 am. ET.
SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket explodes. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The four crew members are set to travel 870 miles above the Earth's surface at the highest altitude humans have traveled since 1972 Apollo moon mission. The spaceship will follow me travel down in an orbit about 435 miles above Earth.
The crew will wear new ones SpaceX space suitswhich have never been tested in space. SpaceX says the suits are easier to fit and have better displays and cameras than previous models. On the third day of the mission, crew members Isaacman and Gillis are set to depart the ship the first privately funded spacewalk wearing these costumes.
Related: 'This is the last straw': Elon Musk says he's moving X, SpaceX to Texas
The Polaris Dawn mission could be a giant step forward commercial space travel and shape NASA's plans for deeper space exploration. It can also make companies, not just countries, the impetus for space activities.
“Until now only countries have been able to perform a spacewalk,” Gillis told him BBC. “Space X has big ambitions to get to Mars and make life multiplanetary. To get there, we have to start somewhere.”
The whole journey is dangerous: Isaacman is the only one who has been in space before and none of the crew has done a spacewalk. New suits can overheating or fogging.
The mission, however, has tangible benefits, especially for human health. For examplethe crew will collect data to deepen scientific understanding of how radiation affects human health and will conduct about 40 experiments from 20 partner institutions.
The spacesuits used by the crew are also scalable, meaning they can be mass produced and made in different sizes for future human cities in space.
“Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits,” SpaceX DECLARING.