The highlight of the five-day mission is expected to come two
days after launch, when the crew embarks on a 20-minute
spacewalk 434 miles (700 km) from earth, in history's first such
private spacewalk.
The company now aims to launch the spacecraft, carried by a
Falcon 9 booster, at 3:38 a.m. (0738 GMT) on Wednesday, it said
in a posting on X.
"Teams are taking a closer look at a ground-side helium leak,"
it added in Tuesday's post. "Falcon and Dragon remain healthy
and the crew continues to be ready for their multi-day mission
to low-Earth orbit."
Only government astronauts have performed spacewalks to date,
most recently by occupants of the International Space Station,
who regularly don spacesuits to perform maintenance and other
checks of their orbital home.
The first U.S. spacewalk was in 1965, aboard a Gemini capsule,
and used a similar procedure to the one planned for Polaris
Dawn: the capsule was depressurised, the hatch opened, and a
spacesuited astronaut ventured outside on a tether.
Polaris Dawn's crew will be testing SpaceX's new, slimline
spacesuits during the spacewalk.
Only two of the four - billionaire Jared Isaacman, mission pilot
Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and
SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both senior
engineers at the company - will leave the spacecraft.
Isaacman, the founder of electronic payment company Shift4,
bankrolled the mission; he has declined to say how much he has
spent, but it is estimated to be more than $100 million.
(Reporting by Gerry Doyle; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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