There were more than a few storm clouds early this morning which could have caused a postponement of the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission. However, the clouds cleared and the launch went ahead, with everything seeming to go rather smoothly and with little cause for concern.
Rather than crewed by professional astronauts with thousands of hours of training, this mission is staffed by a billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military pilot and two SpaceX employees in stylish spacesuits that seemed more like the ones seen in 70s sci-fi shows than reality.
The risky mission will see two of those onboard doing at least one spacewalk, an activity that's been fraught with danger, in fact, it is so risky, it is a wonder they ever got insurance for it. Although, it is not 100% clear that SpaceX actually has full coverage for the whole mission and not just the launch and landing phases of the mission.
