What do a former violinist and a retired military pilot have in common? They’re both from Colorado and launching into space this summer.
Two Colorado astronauts — 30-year-old Sarah Gillis of Boulder and 50-year-old Scott Poteet of Monument — are ready to blast into space with SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission, launching in mid-July.
At approximately 700 kilometers above the Earth, the crew will attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk with SpaceX-designed suits and equipment.
The mission also aims to break the altitude record for Earth orbit at 1,400 kilometers. Currently, the International Space Station is about 400 kilometers above the Earth.
“We will provide updates soon, but we are getting really close,” mission commander and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman said in a statement on social media in June. “It is bittersweet, we spent 2-plus years training together and that is about to end.”
From music to space travel
For Sarah Gillis — a Colorado native who grew up in the mountains outside of Boulder and who will be serving as a mission specialist for Polaris Dawn — it wasn’t until high school that space even pinged on her radar.
Gillis said her mother was a professional violinist and raised her to be a musician as well. She hadn’t considered that there might be something else in store for her until her junior year of high school.
In March of 2012, Gillis snuck into her brother’s college class at the University of Colorado Boulder to meet former astronaut and mechanical engineering professor Joe Tanner, who was giving a guest lecture.
“I didn’t even really know what engineering was until then,” she said. “I ended up staying and talking to Joe Tanner afterward … and that was really this life-changing catalyst for my career.”
Gillis said Tanner mentored her through the rest of her high school career and into college.
When she doubted her future as an aerospace engineer during her sophomore year at CU Boulder, he helped motivate her to get an internship at SpaceX to “get a glimpse into what is possible.”
Gillis now lives in Long Beach, California, where she works as a lead space operations engineer for SpaceX, designing and overseeing SpaceX’s astronaut training program.
But music never left her life.
“Fundamentally, music and engineering are related in many ways,” Gillis said. “When you learn a complex passage or new piece of music, there’s a methodological process of breaking the problem down into smaller chunks. That’s what engineering is and that’s what training astronauts is.”
When Isaacman launched Inspiration4 in 2021 — the first all-civilian mission to space — Gillis was brought in as a lead trainer to get the four-person crew ready for flight.
“During that time, I got very close to Jared,” she said. “Then, when he got the desire to fly again and created this new project with SpaceX, he turned back to me.”
The Polaris Dawn mission is a research exploration, meant to bring back training and information that will make space more accessible in the future, Gillis said.
“It’s fun to be on the other side of the training for once,” she said, laughing. “Each of the crew members has an immense amount of knowledge and experience they’re bringing to the team. Training is about bringing those skills together to be the most effective crew we can.”
Over the last 2 1/2 years, the Polaris Dawn team has spent hour after hour learning in NASA simulators, creating and testing new hardware necessary to perform the spacewalk and getting as close to the real-life experience as they can to prepare.
Gillis said the crew had an opportunity to do free-fall skydiving training with the Airforce Academy in Colorado Springs.
“As we were looking to develop our skills, we needed that high-stakes, real-world environment where we can execute our procedures, manage our equipment and do it all in a fast-paced timeline,” she said. “It was nice to be home.”
As a Colorado native, Gillis grew up hiking and spending a lot of time in the mountains, something she said she would love to believe gave her an advantage when training for space travel.
“I’ve spent so much time thinking about what it will be like to go to space, putting myself in the shoes of the astronauts … but it’s all stationary,” she said. “I’m excited to physically experience that moment when you suddenly hit weightlessness and you’re floating.”
Combat pilot turns to space exploration
For Scott “Kidd” Poteet, the journey to space took a bit longer.
Poteet graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1996 with a degree in outdoor education before spending 20 years in the Air Force. During those two decades, Poteet flew combat missions around the world, led the 64th Aggressor Squadron and became a part of the prestigious Thunderbirds team.
While on the Thunderbirds, Poteet met Isaacman and — after retiring from the Air Force — started working with the CEO as a mission director on Inspiration4.
“I never dreamed I would have this opportunity,” Poteet said. “I struggled as a student in high school and got recruited to run cross country and track at the University of New Hampshire. I didn’t have a technical background and continued to struggle as a student, so I got a degree in outdoor education.”
The emphasis was always on what he could physically do, Poteet said. Since 2000, he has competed in 15 Ironman triathlons, including four Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
“It wasn’t until Jared and Inspiration4 proved anyone could go to space that I even considered it,” he said. “It was amazing to watch. But at the conclusion of that mission, I thought the journey was over.”
When Isaacman approached Poteet about the opportunity to fly into space on Polaris Dawn, he said there was no way he could have passed on the opportunity.
It wasn’t an easy process — Poteet said he often felt like the “weak link” in the team due to his lack of space experience.
“Jared is a proven astronaut and Sarah taught him how to be one,” he said. “I had to play catchup, learning all of the systems and procedures that they already knew.”
On the physical side, Poteet said he found a lot of consistency between space flight and what he had already experienced flying fighter jets and climbing mountains.
When you’re climbing a mountain, it takes days to get up, Poteet said. You’re mentally and physically tired, you’re cold and sleep-deprived and there’s no easy way down — you’ve got to deal with the circumstances you’re dealt.
“It’s about trying to get comfortable in uncomfortable scenarios,” he said. “You learn about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses with your crew. You build confidence over time with yourself and your team.”
There are only a couple of boxes left to check before the team can enter quarantine and prepare for takeoff, according to Poteet. As of July 19, the team had still not entered quarantine.
Once the astronauts enter quarantine, the two-week countdown to takeoff will start.
“It’s been a wild ride over the last couple of years,” Poteet said. “I think that when we’re in training, you’ve got the blinders on and you’re so focused on the task at hand. We don’t often have time to interact with those outside, so just sharing some of my experiences with my family has been very rewarding.”
Poteet’s wife and three children — 18-year-old and 16-year-old girls and a 14-year-old boy — will be standing by for take-off and anxiously awaiting Poteet’s return to Earth.
“They’re a little hesitant based on the level of risk, but they know we’re in good hands,” he said. “Still, they’ll be relieved when I’m back on Earth.”
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