SpaceX schedules early Tuesday for historic Polaris Dawn launch

Sept. 9 (UPI) -- SpaceX late Sunday announced it has scheduled early Tuesday for its historic launch of the manned Polaris Dawn mission following multiple delays.

The Elon Musk -owned company said in a statement that it has set 3:38 a.m. EDT for the mission's launch from Florida's Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Two additional launch opportunities have been identified within a four-hour window -- at 5:23 a.m. and 7:09 a.m. -- with backup opportunities available at the same times on Wednesday.

It said on X, another property owned by Musk, that weather was 40% favorable for the Tuesday liftoff and conditions at the possible splashdown sites for the crew's return to Earth remain "a watch item."

"This is a big improvement over the last two weeks," billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman, who is leading the mission, said in response on X.

"We are getting closer to getting this mission to orbit."

The four-man Polaris Dawn crew is to launch into space aboard a Dragon capsule where they will spend five days in low-Earth orbit.

They are expected to conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk in history on the mission and fly farther into space than any human has flown since the Apollo missions ended in the early 1970s.

SpaceX states the all-civilian crew is also expected to conduct 36 research studies and experiments on behalf of 31 partner companies that are "destined to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight."

The mission's rescheduling follows repeated delays, starting Aug. 26 when it was pushed to the next day to allow additional time for preflight checks. The next launch was then scrubbed just mere hours before liftoff after a helium leak was discovered.

Then weather was to blame for the next delay followed by the Federal Aviation Administration grounding all Flacon 9 rockets after a first-stage booster crashed onto a landing barge in the Atlantic after completing a Starlink Mission.

The ban, though, was lifted late last month, which left space enthusiasts awaiting SpaceX to reschedule the Polaris Dawn mission.

Isaacman will command the mission, which will be his second trip to space where he'll be joined by pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.