Watch LIVE: SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Mission 'launch' with a billionaire on board

SpaceX is set to launch the highly anticipated Polaris Dawn mission today, featuring American billionaire Jared Isaacman and a crew of three on a five-day spaceflight. This mission will attempt the world's first private spacewalk and marks the beginning of the Polaris Program’s three planned crewed spaceflights. The launch is scheduled for 5:38 a.m. EDT (03:08 pm IST) and will be streamed live.

Viewers can follow the entire journey through live coverage, which will include the launch, the spacewalk scheduled for September 13, and other key moments. The launch webcast will begin about one hour before liftoff, and cameras will capture the event from multiple angles, including views from the Falcon 9 rocket and inside the Crew Dragon capsule. 

Watch it LIVE: 

Jared Isaacman, the entrepreneur funding the mission, will command the flight, while retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Scott "Kidd" Poteet will serve as pilot. SpaceX lead space operations engineer Sarah Gillis and lead operations engineer Anna Menon will join the crew as mission specialists. The team will launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and ride the Crew Dragon capsule Resilience, making its third flight.

Polaris Dawn's mission objectives are ambitious. On the second day of the mission, Isaacman and Gillis will conduct a two-hour spacewalk to test a newly designed spacesuit in the vacuum of space. Over the course of the flight, the crew will also perform a series of science and technology experiments while orbiting at an altitude of approximately 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth—higher than the International Space Station's orbit.

This marks Isaacman’s second privately financed space mission, following his role in SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission. The Polaris Dawn mission, if successful, will help pave the way for future private space exploration and test critical new technologies, including the debut of a spacewalk for non-government astronauts.