POLARIS DAWN

POLARIS DAWN is no longer on orbit

NORAD ID: 61042

Int'l Code: 2024-161A

Launch date: September 10, 2024
Source: United States (US)
Launch site: AIR FORCE EASTERN TEST RANGE (AFETR)
Decay date: 2024-09-15

POLARIS DAWN is a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched 10 September 2024 as the 14th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, Isaacman and his crew of three — Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — are in an elliptic orbit that took them 1,400 kilometers (870 mi) away from Earth, the farthest anyone has been 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, Isaacman and Gillis performed the first commercial spacewalk.