SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission achieves historic milestone with longest distance from Earth since Apollo 11 |

After overcoming technical issues and weather obstacles, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn has successfully carried four astronauts to the greatest distance from Earth since NASA‘s iconic Apollo 11 moon landing. Using the Falcon 9 rocket, the crew reached a low-Earth orbit, travelling 1,400 km from Earth.

Elon Musk’s poetic congratulations

Elon Musk congratulated SpaceX on X, sharing a short poem:
“Reach for ever-greater heights,
For a future brighter than the past,
Waking up inspired each day,
To discover new secrets of the Universe!”

First all-private spacewalk scheduled

The multi-day mission features a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday, September 12 (Flight Day 3).The Polaris Dawn team—Jared Isaacman, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon—will participate in the first all-private spacewalk, wearing SpaceX’s extravehicular activity suits.

NASA’s insight on Space Health Research

Jancy McPhee, the associate chief scientist for human research at NASA, noted that each mission, whether involving commercial or NASA astronauts, presents a crucial opportunity to enhance understanding of how spaceflight affects human health. She emphasised that the data gathered from Polaris Dawn will offer essential insights that will assist NASA in planning future deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.
As part of NASA’s Human Research Program, astronauts will use a device to monitor various health metrics such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and temperature to better understand the effects of space on the human body.
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