August 2024

The crew of Polaris Dawn looks at their ride to space at LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center on August 25.
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

The four crew members of Polaris Dawn are in the final parts of mission preparation at Kennedy Space Center today, and readying themselves for the planned liftoff of their mission overnight Tuesday morning.

All four are incredibly accomplished, successful, and results-driven; their curriculum vitae (Latin for “course of life”) shows that vividly.

Official Links
Polaris Dawn Official Website
SpaceX Official Polaris Dawn page
Polaris Dawn St. Jude’s Donation Page (please donate!)

Here’s a brief look at their paths to the launch pad:

Jared Isaacman, Mission Commander

Jared Isaacman, seen August 25th during rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

Born in 1983 in New Jersey, Jared Isaacman began taking flying lessons in 2005. In 2008 and 2009, he set world records for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe. In 2011, he received a Bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Isaacman is the CEO of Shift4, a leading payments processing company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is the founder of Draken International, a company that provides contract air services using tactical fighter aircraft. Draken’s customers include the Department of Defense and the defense industry.

See Also:
Polaris Dawn Crew At Kennedy, Training For Tuesday Morning Launch

Isaacman was the Commander of 2021’s Inspiration 4, and Polaris Dawn will be his second spaceflight.

Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Mission Pilot

Scott Poteet, as seen August 25th during the rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

From Chattanooga, Tennessee, Scott Poteet is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who spent 20 years in the service. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

While in the Air Force, Poteet’s roles included a stint as commanding officer of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, a storied unit started in World War II that now primarily support the USAF Weapons School.

After the Air Force, Poteet worked for Draken Interntional and then Shift4 before he began training full time for the Polaris Dawn flight.

Poteet was a mission director in the 2021 for Inspiration 4. This will be his first flight to space.

Sarah Gillis, Mission Specialist

Sarah Gillis, as seen August 25th during the rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

A familiar face to many space supporters, Sarah Gillis works for SpaceX as the Lead Space Operations engineer for the company, and she is often seen in documentaries and broadcasts of SpaceX’s crewed launch activities. She is often seen the Netflix documentary “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space,” where she she helped train the crew for their upcoming flight and also during the activities in space.

From Boulder Colorado, Ms. Gillis says that, “Growing up in a family of artists and musicians, I can’t say I grew up dreaming of being an engineer (or even knowing what engineering was). Rather, I fell into it when I discovered there was a profession entirely dedicated to creative problem solving, and have been hooked ever since.”

Gillis holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado. This will be her first space flight.

Anna Menon, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer

Anna Menon, as seen August 25th during the rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

From Houston, Texas, Anna Menon also works for SpaceX as the Lead Space Operations Engineer. In her role, she manages the development of crew operations and serves in mission control as both a Mission Director and crew communicator.

She has led the implementation of Dragon’s crew capabilities, helped create the crew communicator operator role, and developed critical operational responses to vehicle emergencies such as a fire or cabin depressurization. Anna served in mission control during multiple Dragon missions, such as Demo-2, Crew-1, CRS-22, CRS-23, Crew-3, Crew-4, and Axiom-1.

Menon is a NASA veteran, woking seven years at the agency as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and also Spanish from TCU (Texas Christian University) as well as a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.

This will also be her first spaceflight.

Polaris Dawn is scheduled to launch Tuesday, August 27th. SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, August 27 at 3:38 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch from Launch Complex 39A SpaceX adds that there are two additional launch opportunities within the four-hour window at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET. If needed, backup opportunities are available on Wednesday, August 28 at the same times.

A Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon lifts off from LC-39A
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

Note: Biographies were prepared in part with information from the Polaris Dawn website.

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Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prior to launching aboard Starliner in May 2024.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will not return to Earth on Boeing Starliner and will be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return with Crew-9 next February and that Starliner will return uncrewed,” he said in a press conference Saturday afternoon. The decision was made following an agency-level review of Starliner’s flight safety risk.

Administrator Nelson added, “Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.” He continued, saying, “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.”

The Problem With Starliner

NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station.

Starliner CST-100 leaving the Boeing facility at Kennedy Space Center on its way to the launch pad.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville.

Since then, engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a collection of data, conducting flight and ground testing, hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various return contingency plans. The uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission.

Crew 9 is currently scheduled to launch NET September 24. However, the crew will be reduced to two astronauts to clear seats for Wilmore and Williams to be aboard next year when Crew 9’s mission on the ISS concludes.

“This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one,” said Jim Free, NASA’s Associate Administrator. Free thanked the engineers working on the issue, noting that many continued working through significant events such as a death in the family and children returning to school. Free praised those employees for their dedication and effort.

Starliner’s Mission Continues, Albeit With No Crew

After today’s decision, Boeing made the following announcement:

Boeing on X.com, August 24, 2024

For its part, Starliner’s flight will continue, albeit in an uncrewed, automated fashion. NASA stated that a second Readiness Review will be conducted prior to that occurring, and that it would happen soon.

Boeing and NASA engineers have been working on reconfiguring the flight software to allow Starliner to undock and reenter without crew. The completion date was not given.

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A New Glenn pathfinder rocket standing at LC-36 at Cape Canaveral
Photo: Blue Origin

Blue Origin announced late this afternoon their target launch date for New Glenn.

via X.com

For some time, Blue had been pointing to September 29th was their target date, so this is a slight push to the right on the calendar. However, that September date was soft, as the company never formally announced September 29 and their targeted launch date.

A Brief New Glenn Overview

Blue Origin: New Glenn
Height98 m (322 ft)
Diameter7 m (23 ft)
Stages2
Payload to Low Earth Orbit45,000 kg (99,000 lb
Payload to Geostationary Transfer Orbit13,600 kg (30,000 lb)
Payload to Cislunar Space7 t (15,000 lb)

New Glenn is a big rocket. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is 22 stories in height at 70 meters (229 feet) and New Glenn stands nearly 100 feet taller than that. SLS stands 322 feet tall — the same height of New Glenn.

According to Blue Origin, “New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. The rocket is engineered with the safety and redundancy required to fly humans.”

In other words, New Glenn was built to be crew-rated from the start. Currently, Blue Origin has not announced any plans to build crew capsules for New Glenn, but that may well be coming at some point in the future. Alternatively, a crewed version of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser or even Boeing’s Starliner could be adapted to fit on top of a New Glenn.

New Glenn at LC-36 at Cape Canaveral
Photo: Blue Origin

As it is with SpaceX’s Falcon family and also its Starship family of rockets still under development, New Glenn was built from the start to be largely reusable: like the Falcon rockets, the first stage is planned to land on a barge offshore. Currently, unlike Falcon rockets, Blue Origin does not plan to return to the launch site with any missions.

The first stage of New Glenn uses a combination of methane and liquid oxygen as its propellants, like United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket, and SpaceX’s Starship. New Glenn also uses the same engines as Vulcan’s first stage, the BE-4. Unlike Vulcan, solid rocket boosters are not planned for use with New Glenn. Instead, it will have seven BE-4’s compared to ULA’s two.

The New Glenn second stage is powered by a more traditional propellant mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the same combo that powers Centaur, the second stage in use for Atlas V and Vulcan by ULA. Hydrolox, as it is called, also powers the first and second stage of SLS. It was also used in Saturn V upper stages as well as the Space Shuttle’s main engines.

Payload For The First Mission

Blue Origin is planning to get right to business with New Glenn on the first launch. It will be carrying two small probes to Mars to study the Red Planet’s magnetosphere for NASA’s Escapade mission.

Those probes were built by Rocket Lab, and have been shipped to Cape Canaveral for final processing.

The ESCAPADE pair of spacecraft that will be aboard New Glenn on its inaugural launch.
Photo: Rocket Lab
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Starliner CST-100 in launch preparation, May 31, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

NASA announced late yesterday that the agency will conduct the long-awaited Readiness Review for Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test on Saturday, August 24th. In that Review, the readiness of Starliner to return to Earth with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be analyzed by NASA leadership and a decision as to how the Starliner CFT mission will be ended may finally be made.

Also in the announcement, NASA said that they will hold a press conference shortly after the Readiness Review ostensibly to announce and discuss their descision.

What Will Be Decided?

NASA’s choice seems to be a simple one on the surface: return the astronauts in the Starliner capsule or eventually return them on a SpaceX Crew Dragon while Starliner returns to Earth autonomously.

The date of the Readiness Review has been delayed while NASA analyzed data from Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne and its own scientists and engineers, saying at the time that they needed the extra time for a more thorough analysis and more testing.

Ken Bowersox
Photo: NASA

Last week, NASA’s Ken Bowersox, Associate Administrator of the Space Operations Mission Directorate said that NASA has the luxury of time on its side in order to come to a consensus on whether to return Williams and Wilmore to Earth on Starliner or in a Crew Dragon. “A flight readiness review around the end of next week, potentially beginning of the following week,” he said.

“We can juggle things and make things work if we need to extend, but it’s getting a lot harder,” Bowersox said. With the consumables we’re using, with, the need for the use of the ports for cargo missions, we’re reaching a point where that last week in August, we really should be making a call, if not sooner.”

The Crew Flight Test launched on June 5 on a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Designed to be an end-to-end test of the Starliner system, the flight was originally announced to be an eight-day mission, but by the time of its review it will have reached 80 days.


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Polaris Dawn’s Crew: (L-R) Jared “Rook” Isaacmen, Sarah Gillis, Anna Menon and Scott “Kid” Poteet.
Photo: Jon Kraus / Polaris Program

The crew for the upcoming privately crew flight of Polaris Dawn mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center earlier this week and are now in final preparations for their upcoming flight aboard a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon.

The Polaris Dawn launch window opens at 03:38 AM EDT Tuesday August 27 and extends until 07:10 AM the same day. If for some reason the launch is called off Tuesday, the next opportunity is Wednesday, August 28 using the same times.

Once aloft, the mission is planned to last five days.

Jared Isaacman
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Program

“After more than two years of training, we are excited to embark on this mission,” said Jared Isaacman, commander of the Polaris Dawn mission earlier this week.

“We are incredibly thankful for this opportunity and to the thousands of SpaceX engineers who have contributed to this endeavor. We hope the results from our mission will accelerate SpaceX’s vision to make life multiplanetary and support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its efforts to improve global survival rates for childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Throughout our mission, we will aim to inspire humankind to look up and imagine what we can achieve here on Earth and in the worlds beyond our own.”

Donate To St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Highest Orbit Since Gemini

Gemini 11 lifts off in 1966
Photo: NASA

Isaacmen will be joined by Sarah Gillis, Anna Menon and Scott “Kid” Poteet on the Polaris Dawn mission, which plans to eventually fly at an orbital attitude of ~700 km (~435 miles) above the surface of the Earth, the highest since Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon flew Gemini 11 to a 1,373 km (~853 miles) in 1966.

To provide a bit of contrast, the International Space Station orbits the Earth at around 400 km (~250 miles), and the Hubble Space Telescope is at 515 km (320 miles). Polaris Dawn will be above both.

Official Links
Polaris Dawn Official Website
SpaceX Polaris Dawn Mission Page

First Commercial Spacewalk

The mission also plans to conduct the first all-private spacewalk. All four astronauts will don new spacesuits built by SpaceX for this mission, while two will actually exit the depressurized Falcon 9.

Rendering of the Polaris Dawn Spacewalk
Graphic: Polaris Program

“The idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about this suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions,” Isaacman said Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

During their spacewalk, the crew will conduct tests to provide data that will provide SpaceX engineers with in-flight data of each suit’s performance, strengths, and weaknesses. That, in turn, will inform improvements, allowing SpaceX teams to produce and scale the suit for future long-duration missions.

LASER-based Space Communication

The mission will also test a new communications system while in flight. Using optical-based transmitters and receivers, Polaris Dawn will link with Starlink satellites, which will then link to Earth.

This will provide greater bandwidth than the current TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) system used by current American spaceflights and of course ISS with military usage also being an important role for the system.

The TDRSS system.
Graphic via Wikimedia

TDRSS has been in place since the 1980s, and while it has been a robust and reliable form of communication, its services are limited by the amount of usage for ISS, crewed flights, and other missions.

Currently, TDRSS provides about 6 Megabit per second in the S-band and 800 Mb/s in the Ku/Ka bands. That’s roughly what a home with cable broadband gets, and while that’s a decent amount of broadband, it is very busy and does no have a great deal of additional capacity.

The LASER links to Starlink will provide more bandwidth and multiple connections, giving more data flow to and from the Earth. With the growth of commercial spaceflight and the promise of commercial space stations in the near future, clearly a new system is needed.

Medical Experiments

Polaris Dawn will conduct at least forty human health experiments while in orbit, providing vital data to SpaceX about the physiological changes and effects of spaceflight on the human body, which in turn will help the company and others prepare future astronauts for long-duration flight both in orbit but also on the moon and for flights to and from Mars.

While it would be easy to overlook these experiments, new data on spaceflight and humans can only add to the knowledge already gathered through the years, particularly on ISS. The results that Polaris Dawn astronauts provide will confirm or question previous results, for example, and that can only improve the lives of future astronauts.

Talk of Titusville will be providing full coverage of the Polaris Dawn flight. Be sure to check back over the next few days for crew biographies, launch previews and more!

Note: article uses quotes from the Polaris Dawn website.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at 09:20 AM EDT on August 20, 2024.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

Liftoff was at 09:20 AM EDT, with Booster B1085 completing its first mission successfully 8:14 minutes later when it touched down offshore on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’

B0185, whose maiden flight was originally slated for Crew 9, was moved up in SpaceX’s rotation to prove in the booster due to some water intrusion while it was being shipped from the company’s McGregor, Texas facilities. The flight was nominal, and the booster will not be returned to Port Canaveral and ultimately SpaceX’s ‘Hangar X’ facility where it will be inspected and refurbished with an eye towards using it for the Crew 9 flight late next month.

The second stage continued to orbit nominally, with SpaceX reporting several successful second stage burns that optimized the orbit for payload deployment.

Payload

23 Starlink satellites. They will join Group 10 of SpaceX’s burgeoning Starlink’s constellation of Internet communication satellites. That service is used by over 3.1 million users in over 100 countries and territories worldwide.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

SpaceX will launch another group of Starlink satellites early in the morning on Friday from Space Launch Complex 40.

  • Date: NET August 23, 2024
  • Organization: SpaceX
  • Mission: Starlink 8-6
  • Rocket: Falcon 9
  • Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
  • Launch Window: 03:46 – 07:46 AM EDT
  • Payload: Starlink telecommunication satellites
Falcon 9 left two “smoke rings” as it ascended this morning. This one was the first.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Falcon 9 left a pair of “smoke rings” as it cruised through the clouds over Cape Canaveral this morning.
Photo: Charles Boyer, Talk of Titusville
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Logo for the International Deep Space Food Challenge
Courtesy: NASA

Merritt Island-based Interstellar Labs was awarded the Grand Prize and $750,000 for its entry into NASA and the Canadian Space Agency’s “Deep Space Food Challenge,” in which competitors created unique food production technologies for long-duration crewed exploration missions.

Angela Herblet
Photo: NASA

In a release announcing the reward, Angela Herblet, Centennial Challenges Challenge Manager at NASA, and the manager for the Deep Space Food Challenge at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said, “The Deep Space Food Challenge could serve as the framework for providing astronauts with healthy and delicious food using sustainable mechanisms. The challenge has brought together innovative and driven individuals from around the world who are passionate about creating new solutions that support our agency’s future Moon to Mars missions.”

Previously: NASA and Canadian Space Agency’s “Deep Space Food Challenge” Enters Final Phase of Competition

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency conducted the competition for companies to provide nutritious and tasty food for astronauts on long-term missions. The competition was narrowed to five finalists on the American side, with three additional internationally-based competitors rounding out the field. Called the Deep Space Food Challenge, the goal of this competition was to generate novel food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste while creating items or cuisine that are actually appealing to the crew.

The challenge concluded at the Deep Space Food Symposium, a two-day networking and learning summit at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center in Coloumbus, Ohio on August 15th and 16th this year.

Throughout the event, attendees met the Phase 3 finalists, witnessed demonstrations of the food production technologies, and attended panels featuring experts from NASA, government, industry, and academia. The winners of the challenge were announced at an awards ceremony at the end of the symposium.

Barbara Belvisi of Interstellar Labs
Photo: LinkedIn

Led by Interstellar’s Labs Founder and CEO, Barbara Belvisi, the small business combined several autonomous phytotrons and environment-controlled greenhouses to support a growth system involving a self-sustaining food production mechanism that generates fresh vegetables, microgreens, and insects necessary for micronutrients.

Previously: Interstellar Lab Plans To Grow Roses On The Moon

Two other American and one international competitor were also awarded prizes: Nolux of Riverside, California, and SATED of Boulder, Colorado, each received $250,000 for their entries, and Solar Foods of Lappeenranta, Finland, also won an award.

“Congratulations to the winners and all the finalist teams for their many years dedicated to innovating solutions for the Deep Space Food Challenge,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These food production technologies could change the future of food accessibility on other worlds and our home planet.”

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