“We have some pretty ambitious objectives.”

Dawn Mower

SpaceX is set to launch its Polaris Dawn mission as early as tomorrow morning from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. A workhorse Falcon 9 rocket will carry the Crew Dragon spacecraft, dubbed Resilience, into orbit with a crew of four space tourists on board. The most exciting part of the mission — led by billionaire jet pilot and space traveler Jared Isaacman — is that three days in, it’s slated to feature the first-ever private spacewalk.

If you’re imagining an airlock, though, think scrappier. Crew Dragon doesn’t have one, so the daring feat will involve depressurizing the entire capsule, which means that all four crew members will have to don their space suits to survive the vacuum of orbit.

Isaacman and fellow crew member Sarah Gillis will then attempt to venture outside of the spacecraft in their newfangled extravehicular activity (EVA) suits for a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse at the world below.

Radiation Blast

Instead of using a massive pool to train astronauts for their spacewalks like NASA, SpaceX has opted for an elaborate pulley and harness system to prepare its private crew for the weightlessness of space.

“We’ve been doing a ton of training to prepare the physical motions of the spacewalk,” Gillis told the Washington Post. “And we’ve done a ton of work as a crew to be ready for every contingency that could arise.”

Apart from completing the first private spacewalk, Isaacson and the rest of his crew are also set to become the first humans to fly over the Earth’s poles.

It’s a harrowing orbital path that will also see them cross the planet’s radiation belts, exposing their bodies to novel hazards. In a matter of hours, they will receive the equivalent of several months’ worth of radiation on board the ISS.

Isaacman will draw from plenty of experience, having already circled the Earth on board the first all-private-citizen journey back in 2021.

But his second foray on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon will up the complexity level significantly.

“This is a mission that sets out to accomplish a lot of things in a very short period,” Isaacman said during a press conference earlier this month. “We have some pretty ambitious objectives.”

If everything goes according to plan — a big if, considering the substantial risks involved — Isaacman is still hoping to help NASA fix its ailing Hubble space telescope in person. The plan has raised plenty of eyebrows at the space agency, with experts arguing he could accidentally do more damage than good.

“I haven’t given up hope on this,” he told the WaPo. “I still think it will be an absolutely great mission for science and commercial space.”

“I don’t think that door is closed, but if it’s not Hubble, it’ll be something else very meaningful,” he added.

More on the mission: SpaceX Tourist Who Plans to Become First Private Spacewalker Says He’ll Be “Surrounded by Death”