Polaris Dawn

Things are slowly falling into place for the Polaris Program‘s first mission, Polaris Dawn. The mission is nearing milestones that might finally give it a launch date that will actually hold.

Announced in February, Jared Issacman’s Polaris Program crew has been training for a flight on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft this year. At EAA’s AirVenture airshow this weekend, Issacman announced that the launch date for Polaris Dawn could be as soon as the end of this year.

In a Tweet last year, Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink laser-based communication was coming to SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Now we know the Polaris Dawn mission will be the first crew to test out and make use of this additional connectivity option. And as Starlink continues to expand, with plans for Gen2 Starlink satellites launched on Starship being essential for the company, NASA has expressed some concerns about the expanding constellation.

Today, a great deal of news about the future tourism flights of SpaceX came to light, led by none other than Billionaire Jared Isaacman. After commanding Inspiration4 last year, Isaacman will return as commander of a daring first of its kind Dragon mission, flying higher and staying longer than Inspiration4 did.