An fully civilian crew ready for the explosion Wednesday evening on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first privately funded non-government trip around Earth. The three days Mission Inspiration4 is dedicated to uprising $ 200 million for St. John’s Children’s Research Hospital Jude.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, who hired the mission, will be joined by Chris Sembroki, an aerospace engineer; Sian Proctor, an artist-educator who will become the fourth black woman to fly into space; i Hayley Arceneaux, a child cancer survivor who was treated at St. Jude and who now works at the hospital. At 29, Arceneaux will be the youngest American to fly into space.
The Blastoff of the historic 39A block of the Kennedy Space Center is headed at 8:02 pm EDT, beginning a 12-minute ascent into an orbit 360 miles high, 100 miles above the International Space Station . It is the highest that anyone has flown since the last launch mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
From this elevated perch, Isaacman and his Inspiration4 teammates will enjoy unparalleled 360-degree views of Earth and deep space through a clear, personalized dome or dome on the nose of the capsule that has replaced the coupling mechanism used for NASA flights. to the space station.
Inspiration4
The fully automated flight will mark the 125th launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9, the 22nd of this year and the fourth Crew Dragon pilot mission.
The capsule is equipped with a “full wrap” abortion system to instantly propel the spacecraft out of a malfunctioning pulse, causing an emergency shock in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX did not provide details about its crew rescue plans, but claims there are adequate guarantees.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet, director of the Inspiration4 mission and former Thunderbirds Air Force pilot, said Isaacman and company are as prepared as any professional astronaut.
“This training has prepared them 100% for any contingency they experience in orbit,” he said.
“They’ve spent six months with the same training as any NASA astronaut,” including centrifuges, rides on fighter jets Isaacman flies as a hobby, months of study in the classroom, and a 30-hour practice in a Crew Dragon simulator .
Asked if anyone had any concerns about mounting a rocket into space, Isaacman said EspaxX founder Elon Musk gave the crew “their assurances that the entire leadership team is focused solely on this mission and very confident. And that obviously inspires a lot of confidence in us too. But there is no nervousness, no excitement to begin with. “
Arceneaux added: “The inconvenience is good.”
While billionaires Richard Branson i Jeff Bezos reached the headlines earlier this summer, when they spent a few minutes in weightlessness during suborbital flights up and down, the Inspiration4 crew will spend three days orbiting Earth before returning to the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.
Isaacman said the flight was an “inspiring” first step toward opening the high border to civilian use.
“We started from the beginning to send a very inspiring message, certainly what can be done in space and the possibilities that exist, but also what we can achieve here on Earth,” he said.
This included “the largest fundraising effort in the history of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, recognizing the real responsibilities we have here on Earth to earn the right to advance in space.” , he said. “And I think we’re on track to achieve that goal.”
The crew plans an in-flight event with patients at St. Jude and will conduct a battery of medical tests and experiments throughout the mission, including the use of an ultrasound device to help measure fluid changes to the advantage caused by the onset of weightlessness. .
Fluid changes, interactions with the neuro-vestibular system or balance, and other reactions trigger space motion disease in approximately half of astronauts flying in space, an uncomfortable disease that usually fades after two or three days as the body adapts to the new environment.
“Space sickness is one of the interesting things this mission will explore, like all NASA missions that have been before,” said Todd Ericson, a former Air Force test pilot who helps manage the Inspiration4 mission. for Isaacman.
“Every person reacts differently,” he said. “Fighter pilots get sick like non-fighter pilots and vice versa. The SpaceX medical team has a lot of experience in this area … they have a regimen to minimize it and then treat it if it really gets serious. . “