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Last month, a Ukrainian American nonprofit called on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Elon Musks SpaceX, accusing him of meddling in Russias favor and urging the agency to consider stripping the company of its ability to offer internet service.

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Analysis | Ukrainian group escalates FCC fight over Musk's SpaceX - The Washington Post

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Upping the stakes in the nascent private space-travel business, SpaceX unveiled a new spacesuit that will provide its upcoming Crew Dragon charter mission with the unprecedented ability to include a spacewalk.

The flight, slated to launch this summer, is the first of three technology demonstration missions developed and funded by entrepreneur-adventurer Jared Isaacman. The initiative, known as the Polaris Program, follows Isaacmans 2021 Inspiration4 mission, which marked SpaceXs first private charter and Isaacmans debut as a private astronaut.

The Polaris Program opens with a four-member crew launching onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon into an orbit reaching nearly 750 mi. above Earth. The capsule is then planned to boost itself into an 870-mi.-high orbit, the highest altitude for a crewed spaceflight since the final Apollo Moon mission in 1972. After seven orbits, during which sensors will collect data about the radiation environment, the Dragon is to descend to an orbit about 435 mi. above Earth for the first spacewalk by private astronauts.

Since SpaceXs Crew Dragon lacks an airlock, the entire capsule will be depressurized during extravehicular activity (EVA) operations, which are expected to last 2 hr.

Isaacman, 41, will be accompanied outside the capsule by crewmate and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis. Others on the Polaris kickoff mission, known as Polaris Dawn, are SpaceX employee Anna Menon and Isaacmans longtime friend and colleague Scott Kidd Poteet, mission director for Inspiration4.

Depressurizing the Dragon will require all four crewmembers to don EVA suits. The suits, which have been in development at SpaceX for two years and were unveiled on May 4, are based on the pressure suits worn by Dragon crewmembers during launch and reentry. SpaceX so far has flown 13 crews into orbit, including nine missions for NASA, three private charters to the space station for Houston-based Axiom Space and Isaacmans Inspiration4 mission.

With mobility in mind, SpaceX teams incorporated new materials, fabrication processes and novel joint designs to provide greater flexibility to astronauts in pressurized scenarios while retaining comfort for unpressurized scenarios, SpaceX wrote on its website. The 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor to reduce glare during the EVA in addition to the new head-up display and camera that provide information on the suits pressure, temperature and relative humidity.

The suit also incorporates enhancements for reliability and redundancy during a spacewalk, adding seals and pressure valves to help ensure the suit remains pressurized and the crew remains safe, the company stated.

The EVA spacesuit features:

The suit fits like a glove, Poteet wrote on X. So comfortable its hard not to take micro-naps between sim sessions.

The Polaris Dawn crew will wear the EVA suits for launch and reentry as well. This suit is to be our first design of the EVA suit, SpaceX Vice President for Dragon Stuart Keech said in a May 4 presentation. Were going to continue through block upgrades as we go forward and learn.

The spacewalk will include a hands-free demonstration using a foot-mobility aid, Isaacman added.

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SpaceX Unveils Spacesuit For Private Astronaut Spacewalk - Aviation Week

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SpaceX launches its 74th Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. This mission, combined with the preceding Falcon 9 launches and the nine Falcon Heavy flights, allowed SpaceX to surpass the total number of Space Shuttle launches from this pad. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Update 3:14 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed the first stage booster, B1083, on the droneship, A Shortfall of Gravitas.

With a Wednesday afternoon launch, SpaceXs Falcon family of rockets exceeded the total number of Space Shuttle missions from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center. The combination of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket launches passed the total number of shuttle flights seen at that pad.

They reached the milestone with the Starlink 6-56 mission, which launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 UTC), marking 83 orbital launches from SpaceXs KSC pad. Thats one more than the 82 shuttle launches that took place over the 30-year history of that program.

The SpaceX flights are a combination of 74 Falcon 9 launches and nine Falcon Heavy launches.

The first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1083 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a third time. It previously launched the Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station as well as the Starlink 6-48 mission.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the booster touched down on the SpaceX droneship, A Shortfall of Gravitas. This marked the 68th booster landing for ASOG and the 305 first stage landing for SpaceX to date.

Following the booster landing, Jared Isaacman, the commander of the forthcoming Polaris Dawn mission, posted a couple of times on X (formerly known as Twitter) in reaction to mentions of the mission. The comments fueled speculation that B1083 will be the booster that supports the launch of Isaacman and his three crew mates inside of the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft.

During a Spaces event on X to talk about the Polaris Dawn mission, Stu Keech, the vice president of the Dragon program, noted that Crew Dragon Resilience was already in the Sunshine State, getting prepared for the launch. The mission will be highlighted by the operation of the first civilian spacewalk in history.

Its going through its prelaunch processing phase and the hardware is moving forward and on track for that early summer launch, Keech said.

Wednesday afternoons mission added another 23 Starlink satellites to the growing constellation. Prior to this launch, SpaceX has sent up 702 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit in 2024 over the course of 31 launches.

According to expert orbital tracker and astronomer Jonathan McDowell, as of May 6 there are currently 5,935 Starlink satellites on orbit out of a total of 6,350 that have been launched to date.

Roughly half a day after the Starlink 6-56 mission launch, SpaceX aimed to add another 20 satellites to LEO with the Starlink 8-2 mission, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. That mission, set to launch at 7:48 p.m. PDT (10:48 p.m. EDT, 0248 UTC), includes 13 Starlink satellites that feature the Direct to Cell capability.

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SpaceX breaks Space Shuttle pad record with Falcon 9 Starlink mission Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX blasts off on 35th Space Coast launch of the year  Phys.org

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SpaceX blasts off on 35th Space Coast launch of the year - Phys.org

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When is the next SpaceX launch? Here's what Arizonans should know - The Arizona Republic

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