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SpaceX set its riskiest trip into motion on Tuesday with the launch of its five-day Polaris Dawn mission. Four civilians, including fintech billionaire Jared Isaacman who funded the trip, retired Air Force pilot Scott 'Kidd' Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, are on board the spacecraft, which launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:24 a.m. ET.
SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket blasts off. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The four crew members are set to travel 870 miles above the Earth's surface to the highest altitude that humans have traveled to since the 1972 Apollo moon mission. The spacecraft will then travel down to an orbit around 435 miles above Earth.
The crew will wear new SpaceX spacesuits, which have never been tested in space. SpaceX says the suits are easier to move in and have better displays and cameras than previous models. On day three of the mission, crew members Isaacman and Gillis are set to embark on the first privately funded spacewalk wearing these suits.
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The Polaris Dawn mission could be a giant step forward for commercial space travel and shape NASA's plans for deeper space exploration. It could also make companies, not just countries, the impetus for space activities.
"So far only countries have been able to perform a spacewalk," Gillis told the BBC. "Space X has huge ambitions to get to Mars and make life multi-planetary. In order to get there, we need to start somewhere."
The whole trip is risky: Isaacman is the only one who has been to space before and none of the crew has done a spacewalk. The new suits could overheat or fog.
The mission has tangible benefits though, especially for human health. For example, the crew will gather data to deepen scientific understanding of how radiation affects human health and perform about 40 experiments from 20 partner institutions.
The spacesuits used by the crew are also scalable, which means that they could be mass-produced and made in different sizes for future human cities in space.
"Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits," SpaceX stated.
