SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn astronauts will make a daring trek into Earth’s Van Allen radiation belt

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn astronauts will make a daring trek into Earth’s Van Allen radiation belt

SpaceX’s trailblazing Polaris Dawn mission will soon begin its daring trek into Earth orbit — and with it, the plunge through the belt of radiation wrapped around our planet.

The four-person crew of civilians, led by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early on Tuesday (Sept. 10) after a series of launch delays attributed to technical issues and bad weather. Soon, the crew will attain a maximum height of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) — three times the altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) and farther than any human has flown since the Apollo was over 50 years ago.