Historic space mission Polaris Dawn successfully launched

cape canaveral - A commercial space trip, leading to the first spacewalk by a civilian, has started on Tuesday with the launch of a rocket from Cape Canaveral space base in Florida.

The flight is called Polaris Dawn. On board is businessman Jared Isaacman (41), who is funding the mission by space company SpaceX. His fellow travelers are Kidd Poteet (50), Sarah Gillis (30), and Anna Menon (38).

Earlier today, the launch was delayed by almost 2 hours due to poor weather conditions.

After departure, the spacecraft will orbit the earth in an oval path. At its farthest point, the distance from the earth is approximately 1400 kilometers. The last time people went so far into space was during the final moon mission in 1972. Furthermore, women have never gone this far into space.

On the third day of the flight, Isaacman and Gillis will step out of the spacecraft and perform a spacewalk, as the first civilians ever. Their trip in the vacuum will last a maximum of fifteen minutes. SpaceX has designed special spacesuits for this purpose.

The mission was announced in 2022, but had to be postponed several times, including due to issues with the new spacesuit.