[ad_1]
The first batch of civilian crew members to enter orbit took off from Florida, USA on SpaceX rockets, marking a new era in the space tourism business.
The spacecraft carrying billionaire e-commerce executive Jared Isaacman and three ordinary citizens who are not very wealthy he chose to join was on Wednesday night (Thursday GMT 00:03) Lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX webcast The footage from the launch showed that 38-year-old Isaacman and his crew-51-year-old Sian Proctor, 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, and 42-year-old Chris Sembroski-were tied to their SpaceX Crew Dragon space called Resilience In the pressurized cabin of the cabin, he wears a black helmet-a white flight suit.
Roaring into the Florida sky, the space capsule sits on top of one of the company’s reusable two-stage Falcon 9 rockets and has a special observation dome installed in its usual docking hatch.
The mission official said that the flight was the first manned mission to enter orbit without a professional astronaut, and it is expected to last about three days from launch to splash on the Atlantic Ocean.
Lift off @Inspiration4X! Go to Falcon 9! Go to the dragon! pic.twitter.com/NhRXkD4IWg
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
Video clips posted on social media showed cheers from the control tower when the Falcon 9 rocket separated from the Dragon spacecraft after 12 minutes of flight.
It marks the first flight of SpaceX owner Elon Musk’s new orbital travel business, and is ahead of the competition, and they also offer rocket ship rides to customers who are willing to pay a small sum of money for the excitement and bragging rights of space flight.
“A 200 million dollar flight”
Isaacman paid an undisclosed amount to billionaire Musk for this trip. Time magazine set the ticket price for all four seats at 200 million U.S. dollars.
The mission, called Inspiration4, was conceived by Isaacman, and was primarily to raise awareness and awareness of one of his favorite careers, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading pediatric cancer center in Memphis, Tennessee. support.
The goal of Inspiration4 is an orbital altitude of 575 kilometers (360 miles) above the Earth, which is higher than the International Space Station or the Hubble Space Telescope, and is the farthest flight altitude of humans from the Earth since the end of NASA’s Apollo moon landing program in 1972 . Space Exploration Technology Corporation.
At that altitude, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will circle the earth every 90 minutes at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour (27,360 km/h), which is approximately 22 times the speed of sound.
Commercial space competition
This summer, rivals Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin opened their own private astronaut services, and their respective founding executives, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos participated in the trip. .
Compared with Inspiration4’s space flight profile, these suborbital flights lasting a few minutes are short-lived.
SpaceX has become the most mature participant in emerging commercial rocket companies and has launched a large number of cargo payloads and astronauts for NASA to the International Space Station. Its two Dragon capsules have been docked there.
The crew of Inspiration4 was not involved in the flight of the spacecraft, which was operated by the ground flight team and the onboard guidance system, even though the two crew members were licensed pilots.
On Wednesday, Inspiration4 crew prepares to take off at NASA Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon [Joe Raedle/Getty via AFP]Isaacman, who was rated as piloting commercial and military jets, assumed the role of mission “commander”, while geoscientist and former NASA astronaut candidate Proctor was designated as the mission “pilot.”
The crew also included “Chief Medical Officer” Arceneaux, a bone cancer survivor who later became an assistant to Dr. St. Jude, and mission “expert” Sembroski, a U.S. Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer.
The four crew members spent five months on rigorous preparations, including high-altitude fitness, centrifuge (G-force), microgravity and simulator training, emergency drills, classroom assignments and physical examinations.
Inspiration4 officials stated that this mission is more than just a drive.
The organization said in materials prepared for the media that once in orbit, the crew will conduct a series of medical experiments, “potential applications to human health on Earth and in future space flights.”
Before, during and after the flight, biomedical data and biological samples, including ultrasound scans, will also be collected from the crew.
[ad_2]
Source link