SpaceX Makes History With 1st All-Civilian Spaceflight: Meet The Uncommon Astronauts
SpaceX made history on Wednesday as its Falcon 9 rocket took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the first all-civilian crew mission to orbit Earth.?
Meet the Inspiration 4's diverse crew
The civilians aboard Inspiration 4 include billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman who footed the trip's hefty bill. "A few have gone before and many are about to follow," the 38-year-old billionaire said. Isacmaan is a high school dropout who founded Shift4 Payments, a payment processing service.?
Also on the aircraft is Hayley Arceneaux, who is raising money for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital and is a cancer survivor herself as well as a physician assistant. The 29-year-old is the youngest American to be in Earth's orbit and the first person with a prosthesis (which is part of her femur) in space.?
The spaceflight also saw the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft in geoscientist Dr. Sian Proctor. Proctor is the fourth African-American woman to go to space. The 51-year-old almost became a NASA astronaut in 2009.?
42-year-old US Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroki is also aboard the flight.?
?What is the Inspiration 4 mission?
The spaceflight will touch an altitude of 575 kilometres (357 miles) up in space - which is deeper than the International Space Station itself.The four space travellers will be aboard the spaceship for the next three days, after which they will return to Earth; technically Florida.?
The four "non-astronaut" civilians are part of NASA's commercial crew programme, which was founded in 2011."Congratulations #Inspiration4! Low-Earth orbit is now more accessible for more people to experience the wonders of space," NASA's Nelson tweeted after the launch.
?It's still unclear how much the mission cost and the expense hasn't been declared by SpaceX founder Elon Musk. But the expected cost is to be tens of millions of dollars.The billionaire's three crewmates were selected through a competition with their stories being recorded for a Netflix documentary simultaneously.?
What will Inspiration 4 achieve in space?
?With this historic achievement, the four civilian space travellers are hoping to raise $200 million for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital - a facility in Tennessee.As a child, Arceneaux received treatment there and currently works there.?
?It appears that the crew have taken with a fascinating set of objects including the musical instrument ukulele, hops that may be used to brew beer in space as well as a few NFTs (non-fungible tokens) - digital assets that will be auctioned off once they return to Earth.?
With this mission, space researchers also hope to understand the impact of space on human health by recording the heart rate, sleep cycle as well as their cognitive well-being over the next three days.With the largest ever space dome meant for space viewing, the four civilians are set for the world's most breathtaking view from space.?
With this mission, SpaceX's Elon Musk is sending a message to the world - that one need not be an astronaut to be a spacefarer. For this purpose, the flight is fully automated and the crew has been trained for emergency situations.
Are you excited by SpaceX's phenomenal feat in space? Let us know in the comments below. And for the latest in the world of science and tech, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
