Elon Musk’s SpaceX long-awaited Polaris Dawn mission is ready for takeoff, with an anticipated launch date of August 26th.

SpaceX is now targeting August 26 for the launch of its historic astronaut mission, according to an update posted to the Polaris Program’s social media. Polaris Dawn, which is being funded and spearheaded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, will lift off at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida using a Falcon 9 rocket and send four people to Earth’s orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The program’s official account on X (formerly known as Twitter) announced the date on Wednesday, along with pictures of the crew members, including pilot and retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet, mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, and Isaacman.

During the mission, the Polaris team will spend five days in Earth’s orbit and hopefully set the record for the highest Earth orbit ever flown. In addition, the crew will be conducting scientific experiments, testing Starlink laser-based communications, and partaking in the first commercial astronaut spacewalk. The Team will work towards a number of objectives, namely:

High Altitude
This Dragon mission will take advantage of Falcon 9 and Dragon’s maximum performance, flying higher than any Dragon mission to date and endeavoring to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown. Orbiting through portions of the Van Allen radiation belt, Polaris Dawn will conduct research with the aim of better understanding the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.

First Commercial Spacewalk 
At approximately 700 kilometers above the Earth, the crew will attempt the first-ever commercial extravehicular activity (EVA) with SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, upgraded from the current intravehicular (IVA) suit. Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits; the development of this suit and the execution of the EVA will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions.

In-space Communications
The Polaris Dawn crew will be the first crew to test Starlink laser-based communications in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Health Impact Research
While in orbit, the crew will conduct scientific research designed to advance both human health on Earth and our understanding of human health during future long-duration spaceflights. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Using ultrasound to monitor, detect, and quantify venous gas emboli (VGE), contributing to studies on human prevalence to decompression sickness;
• Gathering data on the radiation environment to better understand how space radiation affects human biological systems;
• Providing biological samples towards multi-omics analyses for a long-term Biobank; and
• Research related to Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), which is a key risk to human health in long-duration spaceflight.

SpaceX and Polaris Dawn will also collaborate with the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Space Technologies Lab at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Weill Cornell Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The launch date of Polaris Dawn has already been postponed several times since the program was initially announced in February 2022. Most recently, it was slated for no later than July 31. The delays were reportedly due to the need for new EVA spacesuits that would ensure the crew’s safety. Back in May, SpaceX unveiled the design, which includes a 3-D-printed helmet with a visor to reduce glare, a heads-up display, and a built-in camera that gives the wearer information on the suit’s pressure levels, temperature, and humidity. The suit also has added features such asa seals and pressure valves to support extravehicular activities.

“The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary,” the company wrote on its website at the time.

Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions that Isaacman has planned. The billionaire previously flew to space in 2021 during SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 mission, which helped raise $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “Inspiration4 and now the Polaris program missions are very small steps in the direction of opening this last great frontier,” he told People in May. “There is so much we stand to learn . . . The answers are out there and so much more. We just need to get out there and explore. Who knows what we may find.”