Polaris Dawn launches to orbit

Achievement unlocked - apogee 1,400.7 km Forward bulkhead Draco firing during burn 🔥

The apogee-raising burn is now complete. The Polaris Dawn crew and Dragon are now on their way to an altitude of ~1,400 km

Dragon’s apogee-raising burn is underway and will last ~eight minutes

Launch of Falcon 9 & Polaris Dawn!

Polaris Dawn Flight Day 1 Update The Polaris Dawn crew completed their first day on-orbit, also known as Flight Day 1. After a successful launch by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:23 a.m. ET, the crew took off their spacesuits and began their multi-day mission. Shortly after liftoff, the crew began a two-day pre-breathe protocol in preparation for their anticipated spacewalk on Thursday, September 12 (Flight Day 3). During this time, Dragon’s pressure slowly lowers while oxygen levels inside the cabin increase, helping purge nitrogen from the crew’s bloodstreams. This will help lower the risk of decompression sickness (DCS) during all spacewalk operations. About two hours into Flight Day 1, the crew enjoyed their first on-orbit meals before engaging in the mission’s first science and research block and testing Starlink, which lasted about 3.5 hours. Dragon made its first pass through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), a region where Earth’s magnetic field is weaker, allowing more high-energy particles from space to penetrate closer to Earth. Mission control operators and the crew worked closely to monitor and respond to the vehicle’s systems across all high-apogee phases of flight, particularly through the SAA region. Mid-day, the crew settled in for their first sleep period in space, during which Dragon will perform its first apogee raising burn. Orbiting Earth higher than any humans in over 50 years, the crew will rest for about eight hours ahead of a busy day on Flight Day 2. Most excitingly, during its first orbit, Dragon reached an apogee of approximately 1,216 kilometers, making Polaris Dawn the highest Dragon mission flown to date. Following a healthy systems checkout, the crew and mission control will monitor the spacecraft ahead of the vehicle raising itself to an elliptical orbit of 190 x 1,400 kilometers at the start of Flight Day 2.

Falcon 9 lifting off from pad 39A in Florida and beginning Polaris Dawn’s multi-day mission on-orbit, where they will conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk as early as Thursday, September 12

Help us save lives with these commemorative items, such as these patient art license plates that were featured in the vehicles that transported the crew to the launch pad. Celebrate the @polarisprogram with us! bit.ly/3ZiTPw8

Liftoff of Falcon 9, Dragon, and the Polaris Dawn crew More photos → flickr.com/photos/polarispro…

Once on-orbit, the crew started to conduct initial rounds of research and test @Starlink

Dragon and the crew will remain at this altitude for ~eight orbits before the spacecraft raises itself to an altitude of 1,400 km later today

View of Earth and Dragon’s Skywalker shortly after the Polaris Dawn crew launched into an orbit of ~190 x 1,216 km

They're off! Congratulations to @PolarisProgram on a successful launch in space! Looking forward to what is to come this week, while the crew, @rookisaacman , @KiddPoteet , @annawmenon , @Gillis_SarahE are in space! ❤️🚀

BREAKING NEWS: Doritos spotted in space. No seriously, we’re going to space today! We’ve partnered with @stjude & @polarisprogram to send Doritos out of this world to help fuel awareness and funds for childhood cancer research and treatment. Visit StJude.org/DoritosInSpace to donate for a chance to try the limited-edition chips and snag other far-out rewards.

Seeing two rockstar engineers from your company wearing suits designed and built by your company, launching to orbit on a capsule designed and built by your company, taking a picture on a historic launchpad completely modernized by your company. This is epic. This is SpaceX.

New experiments launched today!🚀 Aboard commercial mission Polaris Dawn are @NASA studies that test telemedicine tech, gather data on space-related motion sickness, & better assess crews’ injury risk upon landing. More: go.nasa.gov/3XcLck4

During this mission, Dragon will travel repeatedly through the orbital altitudes of over 10 thousand satellites and bits of space debris. No room for error in our calculations.

Liftoff of Polaris Dawn! Polaris Dawn launched at 5:23am ET Sept. 10 from Launch Pad 39A. Onboard the fully-commercial private mission is @NASA science that'll help researchers better understand how exposure to space conditions affects the human body: go.nasa.gov/3AYCxdQ

Photos from today's launch of the Polaris Dawn mission from pad 39A in Florida

The Polaris Dawn mission launched today at 5:23 am ET! 🚀🎶  Sending best wishes to the entire Polaris Dawn crew on their extraordinary journey. Explore our science & music curriculum: polarisdawn.elsistemausa.org

Congratulations SpaceX team and the @PolarisProgram crew!!