SpaceX's First Spacewalk Plan Delayed Due to Helium Leak | WPN World People News

The Polaris Dawn mission, planning the world's first civilian spacewalk, has been delayed by at least one day after SpaceX detected a helium leak in ground equipment before launch. The mission was originally scheduled to launch at 3:38 a.m. local time on August 27 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

Polaris Dawn is a 5-day mission, with a spacewalk planned for the second day after launch. During the spacewalk, the crew will remain in orbit at about 700 kilometers from Earth for 20 minutes. This spacewalk will be the first space activity conducted by civilians rather than official astronauts. The mission's four crew members include billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of the e-commerce company Shift4, who will serve as the mission commander, retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Poteet as the pilot, and two senior SpaceX technicians, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Only Isaacman and Gillis will leave the spacecraft to perform the spacewalk.

SpaceX posted on social platform X that the ground team is further investigating the helium leak and emphasized that both the Falcon rocket and the Crew Dragon spacecraft are in good condition. The crew is ready for this historic mission. The new launch time is set for 3:38 a.m. local time on August 28, with two additional backup launch windows scheduled for the same day.

Notably, the mission plans to send the spacecraft to an orbit approximately 1,400 kilometers from Earth's surface, farther than any manned mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. This will be a challenging feat, paving the way for new possibilities in future civilian space exploration.