You can add four more names to the shortlist of humans who have traveled beyond the edge of the Earth. On Wednesday evening, Commander Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroki launched into space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon as part of the Inspiration4 mission.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 engines came to life at 8:03 p.m. ET and opened a trail through the Florida night sky. It is the first time a mission has launched a crew of orbiting private citizens: there are no professional astronauts on board. Emotions and applause were heard during the live broadcast while the skinny SpaceX team celebrated every milestone of the launch.
Ten minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth, landing in a SpaceX drone parked in the Atlantic Ocean. It was a flawless return, a feat that has become a custom for the basic reusable reinforcement of Elon Musk’s SpaceX fleet.
Two and a half minutes after the first stage returned to Earth, Dragon Crew parted ways with the second stage. As the live broadcast camera was seen inside the spacecraft, a golden retriever stuffed doll began to float around the cockpit, a pet for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. for which the mission aims to raise $ 200 million.
“Few have come before, and many are about to follow them,” Isaacman said in his first communication with control of the SpaceX mission after launch.
“The door is open now and it’s pretty amazing,” he said.
Civilians, tourists, astronauts
In recent months, there have been a lot of incredibly wealthy tourists in the area. The so-called “multimillion-dollar space race” kicked off in July, when Richard Branson led his Virgin Galactic spacecraft in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. Shortly afterwards, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos traveled his rocket a little further. However, whether they have reached “space” has been much debated. Most space observers agree that these short suborbital journeys are not the same as entering a low Earth orbit.
There will be no discussion on the Inspiration4 mission. This flight makes four crews taller than Bezos or Branson and is different from key-shaped flights, even if it was funded by another billionaire Isaacman.
Second stage of separation.
SpaceX
Announced by SpaceX in February, Isaacman bought the entire flight and gave three of the Crew Dragon seats to “people in the general public.” Isaacman offered two places at St. Louis Children’s Research Hospital. Jude, manually choosing Arceneaux, a childhood cancer survivor who now works as an assistant doctor at the hospital and acts as an Inspiration4 doctor.
The second was offered in a raffle for those who made a donation to the hospital. The place was won by a friend of Sembroki, who gave him the place. Sembroki is the mission specialist and will help manage scientific experiments on payload.
Proctor, a geology professor at South Mountain Community College, won an online competition led by Isaacman to complete the crew. She is the first black woman to pilot a spaceship.
However, the mission is more than just fun for space tourists. The four members have experienced months of intense training, much more than those who will fly with Blue Origin from Bezos or Virgin Galactic from Branson, and will perform scientific experiments during the three-day trip.
The spacecraft will orbit at an elevation of about 575 kilometers (355 miles) above Earth, about 100 kilometers away from the International Space Station. Physiological data from the crew will be collected to assess changes in behavior and cognition, as well as “research grade” analysis of heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and good sleep level. the team.
The crew dragon is equipped with a new dome, a transparent dome at its apex, which will offer passengers incredible views of the Earth. It is the first time the dome has been used in flight; the space is usually reserved for ISS docking tools. Expect to see some stunning photos of our giant blue marble in the coming days.
When flying above the orbital height of the ISS, SpaceX and the crew also take risks. The Dragon’s capsule, whether equipped for crew or for supplies, has never reached these heights. It is one thing to test its limits on Earth, but space is intrinsically risky, as evidenced by countless NASA missions since the Mercury era.
The team will spend three days in orbit, making a complete revolution around the Earth every 90 minutes. It is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday, with scorching heat, before splashing off the Florida coast.
It is also one of the busiest times for human spaceflight in history. Over the next few days, 14 humans will be in orbit with three members stationed at the Chinese space station, seven on the ISS and now four more from Wednesday’s flight. This has been presented as a historical record for the space population, but this is debated. During Branson’s suborbital flight, the number of people in “space” was often cited as “16,” but the definition of where space begins is a bit blurry.
But if the door is now opened for private citizens to reach the space, as Isaacman believes, that record will be broken over the next decade.