As Ukraine continues to be attacked by Russia, the all-private Polaris Dawn mission officially expressed its support for the country.
According to mission team members, the crewed Polaris Dawn, led by Inspiration4 CEO and tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, will fly a Ukrainian flag into Earth orbit. Polaris Dawn will be the first mission of the Polaris Program, which has already flown three times on SpaceX spacecraft.
"We stand with Ukraine and its brave citizens and all those fighting for freedom across the world. The Polaris Dawn crew will take this flag to a place in space that still remains beyond the reach of tyranny," program officials wrote in a Twitter statement.
Isaacman, the founder and CEO of payment processing firm Shift4, will lead the Polaris Dawn mission to Earth orbit. Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon are among the mission's three additional crew members, all of whom have extensive experience in aviation and spaceflight operations.
"The Polaris Program is an important step in advancing human space exploration while helping to solve problems through the use of innovative technology here on Earth," Issacman said in a statement.
The four-person team will collect radiation environment data to better understand how space radiation affects human biological systems, as well as biological samples for multi-omics studies for a long-term Biobank. They will also perform research on Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), a major health risk in long-duration spaceflight.
Polaris Dawn will fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, with mission objectives including the completion of the first commercial spacewalk, the testing of Starlink laser-based communications in space, and the performance of science experiments.
After that, Isaacman hopes to fly on numerous additional flights as part of the Polaris Program, which aims to conduct human spaceflight missions while also raising money for charity organizations on Earth. In September 2021, he launched Inspiration4, a project that saw four humans fly in space for many days while raising hundreds of millions of dollars for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, a cause that the Polaris Program would also support.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The U.S. government, as well as its foreign allies, retaliated with a slew of sanctions against Russia. The political ramifications of the war have also reached outer space.
Numerous space partnerships have strained in the aftermath of the unjustified invasion and attacks, while NASA insists that the International Space Station program, which includes both NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos, as well as other partners, is still moving forward as planned.
