BARNEGAT – A local man’s routine morning walk turned extraordinary on Tuesday, September 10, when he witnessed a rare celestial sight in the predawn sky. John Gennarelli had ventured out a little earlier than usual, hoping to catch a glimpse of the highly anticipated SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission.
“I looked up and all I could say was, ‘Oh my God, there it is,’” Gennarelli recalled. “It was amazing.”
What he saw was the luminous streak of the Falcon 9 rocket, which had just launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:24 a.m. Eastern Time. The rocket’s bright trail was visible across several states, with sightings also reported in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio.
Florida residents could buy tickets to watch the launch in person, raising funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. However, Gennarelli considers himself lucky to catch a glimpse of history unfolding from his home hundreds of miles away.
According to the website dedicated to Polaris Dawn, it is the latest in SpaceX’s exploration efforts and includes a four-person crew aiming to achieve something never done before – the first-ever commercial spacewalk. If all goes according to plan, the astronauts will exit their spacecraft and venture into space, donning custom-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, a crucial step in advancing private space exploration.
Over the next five days, the Polaris Dawn crew will orbit Earth at record altitudes, traveling further than any human has since NASA’s Apollo moon missions in the 1970s. The goal is not only to push boundaries but also to conduct scientific research that will benefit future space missions, including efforts to reach the moon and Mars. The mission includes testing laser-based Starlink communications, which could revolutionize space communications for long-duration missions beyond Earth’s orbit.
The astronauts will perform a two-day pre-breathing process which changes the cabin pressure to prepare the crew for their highly anticipated spacewalk scheduled for Thursday, September 12, where the crew will float 700 kilometers above the Earth.
The crew will also perform various health-related experiments while in orbit. They will gather data on radiation exposure, study how spaceflight impacts human health, and conduct research related to conditions such as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), which poses a risk during long-duration space missions.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, CEO of payment-processing company Shift4, serves as mission commander for the Polaris Dawn. Scott Poteet serves as the mission pilot and is a retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel. Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis has acted as a lead in the SpaceX astronaut training program, while Deputy Mission Director Sean Gustafson is a retired USAF reserve pilot. Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon also brings a wealth of credentials as part of her affiliation with SpaceX.
The Polaris program highlights St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as its chosen cause, noting that the hospital first opened in 1962, coinciding with the historic moment when an American first orbited the Earth.
