An all-civilian crew took to space on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday on the first privately funded non-governmental orbit trip, a historic three-day flight dedicated to the ascent $ 200 million for St. Louis Children’s Research Hospital Jude.
As a member of billionaire Jared Isaacman, who hired the mission, participated Chris Sembroki, an “everyday” aerospace engineer; Sian Proctor, an artist-educator who will become the fourth black woman to fly into space; i Hayley Arceneaux, a cancer survivor of St. Jude who now works at the hospital.
“Inspiration4 is the launch,” Isaacman told flight controllers moments before takeoff. “Punch it, SpaceX!”
And they punched him. The engines of the first stage of the Falcon 9 started punctually at 20:02 hours EDT, illuminating the afternoon sky when the reinforcement thundered from the pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center, above 1.7 million pounds of momentum.
SpaceX
The rise of lighting in the sky passed smoothly with the first stage, making its third flight, bringing the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere. The nine engines of the booster shut down two and a half minutes after takeoff, the stage fell and the flight continued with the power of the single engine of the upper phase.
Meanwhile, the first stage turned around in flight and returned to a precise landing point on a marine drone ship, which achieved SpaceX’s 92nd successful effort recovery, which is the 69th at sea. .
At this time, nine and a half minutes after launch, the second stage and the Crew Dragon capsule were safely in the planned preliminary orbit. Two rocket fire were required to orbit at an altitude of 357 miles, 100 miles above the International Space Station.
This is higher than anyone has flown since the last shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
Courtesy: Inspiration4
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.
“We’ve given you a good trip to orbit,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, former head of space operations at NASA and now senior manager of SpaceX, who radioed the crew after the spacecraft separated. space. “Enjoy your time in orbit and we hope you can fly again with SpaceX.”
Isaacman said the flight took the crew “to the door of an exciting and unexplored border where few have come before and many are about to follow it. The door opens now. And it’s pretty amazing.”
SpaceX
Asked before launch whether anyone on the crew had any concerns about driving a rocket into space, Isaacman said SpaceX founder Elon Musk gave the crew “their assurances that the entire team “Leadership is focused solely on this mission and it has a lot of confidence. And that obviously inspires a lot of confidence for us as well. But there is no nervousness, no excitement to move forward.”
Arceneaux added: “The inconvenience is good.”
Shortly after Wednesday’s release, former First Lady Michelle Obama he tweeted his congratulations to the people on board, writing, “I’m thinking of all the young people who will be looking at this crew and dreaming of them thank you.”
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. . “
SpaceX