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“Polaris Dawn” mission: for the first time, civilians will carry out a spacewalk with SpaceX
“Polaris Dawn” mission: for the first time, civilians will carry out a spacewalk with SpaceX
(France 2)
SpaceX launched the first private spacewalk in history on Tuesday, September 10. The four civilian passengers of the “Polaris Dawn” mission are preparing to float in the vacuum of space on Thursday morning. They have been training for this for two years.
After three days of flight, four passengers are preparing to do what no civilian has done before them: an unprecedented spacewalk of a few minutes, outside the ship. This civilian crew took off aboard the SpaceX rocket at Cape Canaveral, a space center in Florida (United States), on Tuesday, September 10. On Thursday morning, the hatch of their capsule will open to allow them to float in the vacuum of space.
A brand new experience to test SpaceX’s latest suits. “They will be subjected to space temperatures: in the sun, it’s +150°C, in the shade, it’s -150°C. They will be subjected to a vacuum in terms of pressure, so their suit will protect them from that, because it’s instantly fatal.”explains Vincent Heidelberg, “Stardust” videographer and author of Space Shuttles (Hachette editions). Who are the four passengers? There are two women employed by SpaceX, a billionaire close to Elon Musk and a former pilot of the American Air Force. All have been training intensively for two years for this mission, called “Polaris Dawn”.