Following last year’s Inspiration4 mission with SpaceX, the company is again partnering with the mission’s commander to conduct research and raise more money.
SpaceX will work on another mission, called the Polaris Program, to research tech during spaceflight and to raise funding for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, according to a post on Monday from the billionaire and Polaris Mission Commander @Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman was also the Mission Commander of the Inspiration4 mission last year, in addition to funding the project entirely.
The Polaris Project is also set to be a precursor for SpaceX’s Starship to launch, as Isaacman explains.
Exciting time in commercial spaceflight. Polaris Program will undertake a series of tech demo 🐉 missions culminating in first flight of Starship. Thankful to team @SpaceX, Polaris Directors & my amazing crew @KiddPoteet @gillis_sarahe, Anna Menon🚀
Support for @StJude never ends https://t.co/54nxoHEzWY— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) February 14, 2022
In the post, Isaacman writes that the program will “undertake a series of tech demo [Dragon] missions culminating in first flight of Starship.”
On the Polaris Program website, the company details three separate missions, beginning with Polaris Dawn, followed by Mission II and Mission III, with the latter the first human spaceflight aboard Starship.
The Polaris Program says, “The crew of Polaris Dawn will conduct a spacewalk, support scientific research designed to advance both human health on Earth and our understanding of human health during future long-duration spaceflights, and be the first to test Starlink laser-based communications in space.”
The human health research is also likely to build upon the Inspiraton4 mission’s health experiments and research, conducted aboard the Dragon spacecraft.
