Civilians will walk in space, launching this week!

In a social media post from SpaceX, it was stated that the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry the Polaris Dawn crew into orbit is targeting Tuesday, August 27 for liftoff.

Led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn plans to send its crew of four private citizens as far as 870 miles above Earth — farther than any human has traveled since the Apollo program. The spacewalk, in which two of the crew members will step outside the SpaceX Dragon capsule, will take place at an altitude of 435 miles above Earth.

The Polaris Dawn crew includes Shift4 CEO Isaacman as commander, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet as pilot, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon as mission specialists. Menon will also serve as a medic. The mission is expected to last about five days.

While only two crew members will leave the spacecraft during the flight, they will all be exposed to the vacuum of space once the hatch is opened. Because the Dragon capsule does not have an airlock, this will be a critical test for SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity space suits, which all of the Polaris Dawn crew will have to wear to keep themselves safe.

Menon told Florida Today ahead of the mission that the suits had undergone extensive testing on the ground and that he was confident in their performance. “We certainly know that the suits can be pressurized there,” he said, noting that the team “spent a lot of time pressurizing the suits at this point.”

Polaris Dawn will also test Starlink laser-based communications in space for the first time and collect data to support research on the effects of spaceflight on human health. The mission, which has been in the works for several years, is the first of three planned spaceflights for Polaris.