NOVEMBER 22, 2024 — The Ukrainian flag, featuring the UNITED24 logo, was unfurled aboard SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission, Ukrainian National News reports.
This gesture was highlighted by Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who shared the event on Telegram.
Led by American entrepreneur and astronaut Jared Isaacman, the private Polaris Dawn mission included a civilian crew of four aboard the Dragon 2 spacecraft.
The flag, representing the UNITED24 global fundraising initiative for Ukraine, was deployed inside the capsule during the mission. Isaacman, a supporter of Ukraine since 2022, personally brought the flag into space and previously donated $100,000 for humanitarian aid through UNITED24.
The mission achieved significant milestones, including the highest human orbital flight since the Apollo program. The crew reached an elliptical orbit with a peak altitude of 1,400 km and conducted the first spacewalk of its kind during a privately funded mission.
This is not the first time Ukraine’s flag has been taken to space. According to the Odessa Journal, in 1997, astronaut Leonid Kadenyuk carried the national flag during a NASA Space Shuttle mission.
Image: Odessa Journal
