Due to an adverse weather forecast, SpaceX has postponed the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission, which is scheduled to transport four private citizens into space, once more.
The corporation blamed bad weather off the coast of Florida for the delay, but it did not say if the weather that could have affected the spacecraft’s splashdown in an emergency was the main source of concern or if the crew’s return at the end of the five-day voyage was the real risk.
On Wednesday morning, SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, along with billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and former Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet, were supposed to launch on a mission that would likely include the first spacewalk conducted by a crew composed entirely of civilians.
The Polaris Dawn mission is “heavily constrained,” according to Isaacman’s post on X, by the predicted splashdown circumstances since the capsule won’t be docking at the International Space Station, where the astronauts might have to wait out inclement weather.
Before launching, he wrote, “With limited life support consumables and no ISS rendezvous, we must be positive about the return weather.”
Although there was a backup launch window on Thursday, SpaceX said that it would abstain from both launch attempts due to the weather prediction. The corporation has not yet disclosed a new anticipated launch date.
The business said on X that “Teams will keep an eye on the weather in hopes of finding ideal circumstances for the launch and return.”
A helium leak was discovered at the launch pad, forcing the cancellation of an earlier launch attempt on Tuesday morning.
The Polaris Dawn project is scheduled to fly to the greatest orbital height that humans have reached since the last Apollo lunar mission in 1972, in addition to performing the first spacewalk involving only civilians. In addition, the flight is intended to test new spacesuits and other technology that may be useful for SpaceX’s long-term aim of launching missions to the moon and eventually Mars.