One of SpaceX’s upcoming missions will send astronauts farther from Earth than they’ve traveled at any time since the early 1970s—with hopes of upgrading health care and communications for the rest of us stuck down here.
Polaris Dawn, announced on Monday, will be the first of three privately-funded spaceflights commissioned by Jared Isaacman, the financial-services billionaire and pilot who led and paid for last year’s Inspiration4 mission.
With Polaris Dawn, Isaacman and SpaceX have set their sights higher. Plans for this mission, set to launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2022 from the Kennedy Space Center using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, include breaking an 853-mile altitude record for Earth orbit that’s stood for more than half a century and staging the first private spacewalk.
“This should be eye-opening about what can be achieved through private funding,” Isaacman said during a press call on Monday. He and SpaceX are each…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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