Polaris Program

The Polaris Program is a privately funded set of human spaceflight missions led by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman together with SpaceX. Announced on February 14, 2022, it was planned as at least three flights meant to push crewed spaceflight forward fast. Its mission, Polaris Dawn, launched on September 10, 2024, flew its crew higher than anyone since Apollo 17 in 1972, and made the first commercial spacewalk.

What is the Polaris Program?

The Polaris Program is a set of privately paid crewed missions flown on SpaceX hardware, and it builds directly on Isaacman's 2021 Inspiration4 flight, the first all-civilian mission to orbit. The plan ran from Polaris Dawn through a final mission, Polaris III, which was meant to be the first crewed flight of SpaceX's Starship, the company's fully reusable deep-space rocket. Polaris Dawn flew in September 2024.

Why the Polaris Program Exists

The stated purpose was to move human spaceflight forward through a run of private missions, each one testing the hardware and procedures that longer journeys will need: a new extravehicular activity (EVA) suit, which is a spacesuit rated for work outside the spacecraft, laser communications in space, and radiation research at high altitude. The deeper aim pointed further out, toward the deep-space and multiplanetary goals that drive SpaceX as a whole.

The money came from Isaacman, the founder of Shift4 Payments, a company that had also invested $27.5 million in SpaceX in 2021.

How it Works

Polaris Dawn's orbit ran from about 190 kilometers at its lowest point to 1,408 kilometers at its highest.

The crew flew aboard Crew Dragon Resilience on a Falcon 9 rocket, with Isaacman as commander, Scott Poteet as pilot, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon as mission specialists. After climbing to its highest point to gather radiation data inside the Van Allen belts, zones of charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field, Resilience dropped to roughly 700 kilometers for the spacewalk. Because Dragon has no airlock, the whole cabin was opened to the vacuum of space, exposing all four crew members at once while two of them stepped partway out in a stand-up spacewalk. SpaceX engineers built the suit they wore over about two years, adding a heads-up display in the helmet, built-in cameras, better joint movement, and improved heat control.

The Economics of the Polaris Program

Polaris tested a model in which one private buyer commits to several flights and helps pay for new hardware, such as the spacewalk suit.

A program funded by one sponsor follows that sponsor's plans, and Polaris wrapped up after one of its three planned missions when Isaacman moved to NASA.

The Polaris Program Today

Polaris Dawn's peak altitude, 1,408 kilometers, was the highest any crew had flown since Apollo 17 in 1972, and it broke the Earth-orbit record Gemini 11 had set in 1966. The Artemis II crew went farther in April 2026 on its flight around the Moon.

The high orbit took the crew into the inner Van Allen belt on purpose, to measure radiation that most missions avoid. The crew also ran nearly 40 experiments, including work on Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome, a vision problem seen in astronauts, and the first in-space tests of Starlink laser communications during a human flight, which produced the first X post sent from space over Starlink. Gillis followed Isaacman out of the hatch, and Menon supported the spacewalk from inside the capsule. The mission also carried a violin into orbit for the St. Jude Harmony of Resilience program, and it splashed down off Florida after about 4 days and 22 hours.

What Comes Next

The program wrapped up after Polaris Dawn. The Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman as NASA's 15th administrator on December 17, 2025, by a 67 to 30 vote. During his nomination he pledged to cancel his contract with SpaceX for the remaining Polaris flights, to avoid a conflict of interest with one of NASA's largest contractors, so Polaris II and Polaris III are not expected to fly. The first crewed Starship flight, which Polaris III was meant to be, is now a SpaceX goal with no Polaris crew attached.

The Bottom Line

Polaris Dawn tested a new SpaceX spacesuit in open space, gathered radiation data from the inner Van Allen belt, and came home after nearly five days. Its sponsor now runs NASA, the agency that buys most of SpaceX's crew flights.