Polaris Dawn Launched on September 10, 2024. The Spacewalk Was September 12.

A launch, a high orbit, a spacewalk, and a splashdown are four events. The altitude of the record orbit is not the altitude of the spacewalk. The 2022 announcement, which targeted the fourth quarter of 2022, is the archive note. This page is the flight.

The earlier all-civilian flight is Inspiration4. The suit post in that archive is the EVA suit note. The company is SpaceX.

What’s confirmed

September 10 and September 15, as the program states them

The Polaris Dawn mission page says a Falcon 9 launched the crew to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:23 a.m. ET on September 10, 2024. It says Dragon and the crew splashed down off the coast of Florida at 3:36 a.m. ET on September 15. It names Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon, and says they spent nearly five days in orbit.

The program’s September 15, 2024 return release, datelined Kennedy Space Center, says splashdown was at 3:36:54 a.m. EDT off the coast of Florida, and that launch was at 5:23 a.m. EDT on September 10, 2024, from the same pad.

Label: The program’s pages. The mission page prints 3:36 a.m. ET. The release prints 3:36:54 a.m. EDT. This page does not treat the shorter time as a different splashdown. “Off the coast of Florida” is the program’s place. A more specific recovery point is in the SpaceNews account below, and it stays there.

The SpaceX URL spacex.com/launches/polarisdawn, fetched the same day, returned a launches index. It did not return a Polaris Dawn mission narrative. This page does not quote a SpaceX mission page it did not read.

The apogee, and a different orbit for the spacewalk

The mission page says the crew reached the highest Earth orbit ever flown, with a peak apogee of 1,408.1 kilometers, and that this was the farthest humans had traveled into space since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. It says Dragon flew 75 orbits.

The return release says the crew flew higher than any previous Dragon mission and reached the highest Earth orbit ever flown, “moving through portions of the Van Allen radiation belt at an altitude of 1,408.1 kilometers (874.9 miles),” which the release calls more than three times farther than the International Space Station. It says this was the highest altitude of any human spaceflight mission since the Apollo program. The same list says the commercial spacewalk was flown “in an elliptical orbit of approximately 190 x 700 kilometers (435 miles)” at 17,500 miles per hour. The parenthetical is the release’s. It is printed once, after both altitude numbers.

The mission page’s spacewalk section says the crew completed the first commercial astronaut spacewalk “at altitudes as high as 740 kilometers above Earth,” in SpaceX EVA suits.

Label: The program’s figures. 1,408.1 kilometers is the peak apogee. 740 kilometers, and approximately 190 by 700 kilometers, are the spacewalk altitudes as those two pages print them. They are not the record apogee. “Highest Earth orbit ever flown” and “since the Apollo program” are the program’s claims. “First-ever commercial” spacewalk is the program’s claim.

The mission page says the crew conducted nearly 40 scientific research experiments. The return release says approximately 36 experiments from 31 institutions. Both numbers are the program’s, on different pages. This page does not pick one.

September 12: who went outside, as SpaceNews reports it

SpaceNews (Jeff Foust; the page’s published time is 2024-09-12T11:51:23+00:00) says astronauts on Polaris Dawn conducted the first spacewalk on a non-governmental mission on September 12. The photo caption says commander Jared Isaacman emerges from Crew Dragon on a September 12 spacewalk, and credits a SpaceX webcast.

The article says Isaacman emerged from the hatch in the nose at approximately 6:52 a.m. Eastern, using handholds and rails SpaceX called a “skywalker,” and reentered about eight minutes later. It says mission specialist Sarah Gillis then emerged at 7:05 a.m. Eastern and also spent about eight minutes in the hatch. It says that, as planned, neither floated free of the spacecraft. It says pilot Kidd Poteet and mission specialist Anna Menon also wore the suits, because the cabin was depressurized, and remained in the cabin. It says Gillis closed the hatch.

On altitude, that article says that in the roughly 48 hours between launch and the spacewalk, Crew Dragon raised its apogee to approximately 1,400 kilometers about 15 hours after launch. It calls that the highest altitude for a crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit and the highest for a crewed mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. It says Crew Dragon spent six orbits at that higher apogee before lowering it to about 700 kilometers for the spacewalk.

Label: SpaceNews, written the day of the spacewalk. “Approximately 1,400 kilometers” is that article’s. 1,408.1 is the program’s, and it is also the figure in SpaceNews’s later splashdown story, “according to SpaceX.” About 700 kilometers in the spacewalk article, 740 kilometers on the program mission page, and approximately 190 by 700 kilometers in the return release are three prints. This page does not average them. “Kidd” Poteet is the name in this SpaceNews article. The program mission page’s crew list says Scott Poteet, and the biography on that page says Scott “Kidd” Poteet. This page uses both as the sources print them.

SpaceNews’s splashdown story says Crew Dragon Resilience splashed down near Dry Tortugas, in the Gulf of Mexico west of Key West, at 3:37 a.m. Eastern on September 15. It says the apogee of 1,408.1 kilometers is according to SpaceX, and that this was the highest altitude on a crewed Earth-orbital mission and the highest by any crewed mission since Apollo 17. It says the spacewalk took place on September 12, that all four wore the suits, and that Isaacman and Gillis briefly exited in a “standup” spacewalk. It says the launch was delayed nearly two weeks by weather, which is that article’s account of the delay. The program pages this desk read do not print that delay.

Label: SpaceNews on the recovery. 3:37 a.m. Eastern is that story’s time. 3:36:54 a.m. EDT is the program’s release. Resilience and Dry Tortugas are in the SpaceNews splashdown story. They were not in the program sentences quoted above. “According to SpaceX” is SpaceNews’s attribution for 1,408.1 kilometers. It is not a SpaceX page this desk read.

The crew, as the program biographies state it

The mission page lists Isaacman as mission commander, Scott Poteet as mission pilot, Sarah Gillis as mission specialist, and Anna Menon as mission specialist and medical officer. It says the crew tested Starlink laser-based communications, and that Gillis played violin from space as part of Harmony of Resilience. The return release says that recording was sent with Starlink, and that it was “the first-of-its-kind downloaded from space enabled with Starlink.” Those are the program’s descriptions.

Gillis’s biography on the mission page says that during Polaris Dawn she became the youngest person to perform a spacewalk, and that she and Anna Menon set the record for the farthest distance any woman has traveled from Earth. Those sentences are the biography’s.

Label: The program site. “Youngest” and “farthest” are claims on that biography. This page does not audit them against a NASA log.

Later: the NASA administrator release

NASA’s release 25-077 (Jessica Taveau, December 18, 2025) says Jared Isaacman was sworn in Thursday as NASA’s 15th administrator by District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, at a ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. The caption dates the oath to December 18, 2025. The release says he was nominated by President Donald J. Trump on Nov. 4th and confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 17. Those two dates are printed in the release without a year on that sentence. The release’s own date is December 18, 2025. This page does not add a year the sentence does not print.

The Polaris mission-page biography says he “currently serves as NASA Administrator, following his swearing-in on December 18, 2025.” That is the program site’s sentence. The swearing-in this page uses is the NASA release.

Label: A 2025 personnel act. It is not a fact about the September 2024 flight. The release’s quotation of his remarks about the Moon and Mars is his statement at the ceremony, not a Polaris Dawn result.

Claims and open questions

“First-ever commercial” spacewalk is the program’s phrase. SpaceNews says “the first spacewalk on a non-governmental mission.” This page does not merge those into a single legal category, and it does not survey every earlier private flight.

“Highest Earth orbit ever flown” and “since the Apollo program” are the program’s. SpaceNews names Apollo 17. The program pages quoted here say “the Apollo program” and “1972” on the mission page, and “since the Apollo program” in the return release. They do not, in those sentences, print “Apollo 17.”

The SpaceX mission narrative was not retrieved from spacex.com on October 20, 2026. A company sentence that is only in a search snippet of that URL is not used here. Where SpaceNews says “according to SpaceX,” that attribution stays inside the SpaceNews sentence.

The 2022 target of the fourth quarter of 2022 is the announcement note. It was not the launch date.

On the map

Inspiration4 is the earlier Dragon flight the program’s cause section refers to. The EVA suit note is the 2024 suit post in the update archive. SpaceX is the company. The space map is the section.

Sources

Checked October 20, 2026.