We’ll have to wait at least one more day to see the launch of SpaceX’s historic Polaris Dawn astronaut mission.
Polaris Dawn, which will perform the first-ever private spacewalk, was scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning (August 27) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but a helium leak forced a delay of at least 24 hours.
“Teams are conducting a detailed investigation into a ground-side helium leak in the quick-disconnect umbilical. Falcon and Dragon remain healthy and crews remain prepared for their multi-day missions to low Earth orbit. Their next launch is scheduled no sooner than Wednesday, August 28,” SpaceX announced. X Post Monday night (August 26th).
The launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket is currently scheduled for 3:38 a.m. EDT (7:38 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday, with two backup launches scheduled for the same day at 5:23 a.m. EDT (9:23 a.m. GMT) and 7:09 a.m. EDT (11:09 a.m. GMT). The launch can be followed on a SpaceX webcast beginning around midnight EDT (4 a.m. GMT).
The “quick disconnect umbilical” is the interface that connects the lines from the Falcon 9 to the launch tower. The Falcon 9’s Merlin engine burns kerosene and liquid oxygen, but helium is used to pressurize the fuel lines.
Related: SpaceX launches private Polaris Dawn spacewalk mission, the longest manned spaceflight since Apollo
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions under Program Polaris, a human spaceflight project funded and organized by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman will be the commander of Polaris Dawn, whose Crew Dragon capsule will carry a three-person crew including pilot Scott Kidd-Poteet, a former U.S. Air Force Lt. Col., and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both SpaceX engineers.
Isaacman and Gillis are scheduled to perform a spacewalk on the third day of the mission, the first spacewalk to be conducted on a commercial mission.
Polaris Dawn also aims to reach a maximum distance of about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) from Earth, farther than any crewed mission has gone since Apollo 17 in 1972.
