Start Of Polaris Dawn Mission Lights Up Sky Over Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — The skies over Connecticut, and the comment sections in social media, both lit up Tuesday morning as the Polaris Dawn mission zipped across the pre-dawn sky atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

"What did I see over Groton this morning?!" Redditor "Sc1m17ar" asked the r/Connecticut community, atop a video of a white ball of fire streaking through the predawn sky.

"People, you saw people going into space!" another replied.

"I thought we were being invaded," Redditor "AlphaSlayer21" added, noting that the sight was commonplace in Florida.

The rocket carried daredevil tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew — two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot — into space from Florida for what they hope will be the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk. The extravehicular activity by Isaacman, CEO and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4, and engineer Sarah Gillis is scheduled for Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.

It's not Issacman's first zero 'G' rodeo. He took his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. When he returned, he wrote SpaceX a check for three more, with Tuesday's launch signaling the first of those missions.

Polaris Dawn is nothing if not ambitious, and raises the bar substantially for space tourism. In addition to platforming the first commercial spacewalk, the mission's target altitude of 870 miles would surpass the Earth-lapping record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the moon have ventured farther, according to the AP.

The weatherman caused a two-week delay, as the mission needed clear forecasts for both the launch and the Dragon capsule's return.