Polaris Dawn Slipping to Summer

Since I heard of the SpaceX/Polaris Dawn mission, the date has slipped from the fourth quarter of  '22 to NET (No Earlier Than) March of '23.  Today, we learn via their Twitter account they've slipped to NET "summer" (and H/T to Space.com).  That obviously isn't very specific, but worth noting and keeping track of.  

If you've forgotten, or never heard of it, it's an ambitious mission that's very far out of the envelope that SpaceX has ever conducted a manned mission in, which makes delays seem less objectionable.  In fact, it's out of the envelope of anything NASA has flown in close to 60 years.  

First,

The mission will try to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown, with its furthest point, or apogee, at around 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) over the planet. The previous record of 850 miles (1,368 kilometers) was set by Gemini 11 in 1966. 

Second

In addition to aiming for a record-breaking orbit, the Polaris Dawn crew will undertake several other groundbreaking objectives. These include performing the first extravehicular activity (EVA) for a commercial mission in which a civilian astronaut spacewalks outside a craft. This will see the first use of SpaceX's EVA spacesuit.

Does that line about a SpaceX EVA spacesuit make you go, "wha...?"  I remembered reading about SpaceX saying they'd do alternate spacesuits in the summer of '21, but I didn't remember the money quote.  

NASA had been working to develop a new EVA suit since 2007 and "With $420M spent and another $625M expected, suits won't be "ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest." 

2007 to 2025?  Eighteen years and over a billion dollars to develop a suit? Meanwhile, SpaceX's EVA suits are said to be available now, less than two years since that August of  '21 note.  Less than a year after that, NASA awarded a new contract to a couple of different companies to create new space suits for Artemis lunar missions.  Granted a moonwalker suit isn't exactly the same as the EVA suit, but well under two years to develop the EVA suit is nothing like the 18 years to develop the lunar suit.

Getting back to Polaris Dawn, there are more scientific investigations planned.  In addition to that NASA and SpaceX signed an Agreement to study the feasibility of a SpaceX and Polaris Program idea to boost the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with the Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government. 

As with Leader Jared Isaacman's previous Inspiration 4 mission, it's also intending to fund raise for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. 

Polaris Dawn crew during an EVA training mission.  From top right, clockwise, Jared “Rook” Isaacman, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon. Note that Isaccman and Poteet are both executives at Shift4 as well as extremely qualified pilots; Gillis and Menon are both engineers with SpaceX on the manned spaceflight side, so probably not cool enough to have nicknames like Rook or Kidd.  (Inside joke for other engineer geeks).