NEW DELHI: After a helium leak, bad weather has delayed the Polaris Dawn mission, Elon Musk-led SpaceX announced on Wednesday.
The company is unlikely to launch the mission slated to perform the first-ever 'all-civilian' spacewalk on Wednesday and Thursday, as notified earlier.
“Due to unfavourable weather forecasted in Dragon’s splashdown areas off the coast of Florida, we are now standing down from tonight and tomorrow’s Falcon 9 launch opportunities of Polaris Dawn, ” SpaceX said in a post on X.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions under the "Polaris Programme” by billionaire Jared Isaacman, the commander of the first "all-civilian" space mission Inspiration4, launched in 2021.
While SpaceX has not announced a new target date, Isaacman said “we’ll wait for the best opportunity to ensure success”.
“Our launch criteria are heavily constrained by forecasted splashdown weather conditions. With no ISS rendezvous and limited life support consumables, we must be absolutely sure of reentry weather before launching. As of now, conditions are not favourable tonight or tomorrow, so we’ll assess day by day, ” he added.
The four-member mission was first scheduled to launch on Tuesday, but was delayed over a helium leak “on the quick disconnect umbilical, ” -- an interface that connects Falcon 9 rocket with a line coming from the launch tower.
Musk has been stressing the safety of the crew, as the mission aims to fly higher than any crewed mission since the Apollo Programme ended in the 1970s.
“An incredible amount of work has gone into this historic mission by an amazing team. We are triple-checking everything to make sure there is nothing more we can do to improve crew safety, ” Musk said earlier. He had also noted that in the case of any troubles, “the launch will be postponed until those concerns are addressed”.
Besides Isaacman, the crew includes pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, mission specialist Sarah Gillis, and medical officer Anna Menon.
During the mission, the crew will perform the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) by commercial astronauts, wearing EVA suits developed by SpaceX.