SpaceX has successfully sent its first all-civilian crew to space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft carried four crewmembers on the Inspiration4 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
During the swift liftoff, the cameras inside the capsule showed the crew acknowledging people watching at home. Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Dr. Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski will be in space for around three days, where they’ll perform several scientific experiments while also experiencing the awesome views from the spacecraft’s glass observation dome.
A trip of a lifetime
The Crew Dragon spacecraft will orbit 575 kilometers above our planet, which is 160 kilometers higher than the International Space Station (ISS). The mission also marks the first time for a spaceflight company to ferry a crew that features only non-professional astronauts.
In preparation for the trip of a lifetime, the four crewmembers spent six months performing extensive training that included all aspects of the mission, from take-off to landing, as well as team-building exercises that require climbing part of Mount Rainier in Washington.
Isaacman secured the Inspiration4 mission in a private deal with SpaceX. The founder of payment-processing firm Shift4 Payments said that he will use this mission to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
A visual spectacle for Inspiraton4 crew
The crew is in for a visual treat, all thanks to a new viewing window. The Inspiration4 mission is not going to dock with the ISS, so it doesn’t require a docking mechanism on the nose cone that NASA missions require usually. That left room for a fishbowl-like viewing window which is named a cupola. This window will offer astronauts an unprecedented view of the Earth and the cosmos.
Besides, SpaceX has also partnered with a Canadian tech startup to start an advertising billboard in space. Samuel Reid, CEO, and co-founder of Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC) said that his firm will be working alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch a satellite dubbed CubeSate. This new venture will bring a new era of advertising and many could follow the idea.
