SpaceX's First Commercial Spacewalk Delayed By Unfavorable Weather: Elon Musk-Led Company Has No New Date In Sight

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, on Tuesday, postponed the launch of the landmark Polaris Dawn mission, with no fresh date in sight.

What Happened: The company said it is standing down from launching the mission on Wednesday or Thursday, citing an unfavorable weather forecast.

The weather is forecasted to be not favorable for the company to splash down the Dragon spacecraft carrying the mission astronauts off the coast of Florida at the end of the five-day mission, SpaceX said, while adding that it will continue to monitor the weather.

The company did not give a fresh date for the launch.

Due to unfavorable weather forecasted in Dragon's splashdown areas off the coast of Florida, we are now standing down from tonight and tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch opportunities of Polaris Dawn. Teams will continue to monitor weather for favorable launch and return conditions

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 28, 2024

Though the mission was previously slated to launch on Tuesday, the company announced on Monday evening that it had identified a helium leak and subsequently postponed it to Wednesday to allow the team to check it.

Why It Matters: Musk had warned of the possibility of postponing the mission early on Monday, citing the increased risk associated with the mission.

“Crew safety is absolutely paramount and this mission carries more risk than usual, as it will be the furthest humans have traveled from Earth since Apollo and the first commercial spacewalk! If any concerns arise, the launch will be postponed until those concerns are addressed,” Musk said.

Polaris Dawn is the first of up to three human spaceflight missions planned under the Polaris program founded by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and the all-civilian Polaris Crew composed of four including its mission commander Isaacman, Kidd Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon will spend up to five days in orbit. While Isaacman and Poteet work together at Shift4, Gillis and Menon are both SpaceX engineers.

The key objective of the mission is to conduct a spacewalk nearly 435 miles above the Earth — marking the first-ever spacewalk by a commercial company. While space agency NASA routinely conducts extravehicular activities, no private player has attempted it before, making this a landmark mission for SpaceX and commercial spaceflight companies.

Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock.com

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