The first batch of civilian astronauts will take off on SpaceX rockets | Space News

This will be the first time in 60 years of manned spaceflight that no professional astronaut has boarded an orbiting rocket.

SpaceX’s goal is to put a billionaire into orbit with his two contest winners and a medical worker who has survived childhood cancer on Wednesday night.

This is Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s first chartered passenger flight, and it is also a big step for a private company in space tourism.

“To be honest, this surprised me,” SpaceX director Benjirid said on the eve of the launch of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “Even talking about it now makes me get goose bumps.”

Jared Isaacman, the Pennsylvania entrepreneur responsible for the order, would not disclose how much he paid.

After launching sometime after 8:02 pm local time on Wednesday (00:02 GMT), Isaacman and his companions will orbit at an unusually high altitude of 575 kilometers (357 miles). Three days of Earth orbit—160 kilometers (100 miles) above the international space station—before splashing off the coast of Florida this weekend.

From left, Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux sit in the SpaceX Dragon capsule in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, rehearsing for Wednesday’s launch [File: SpaceX via AP]

In July, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin were launched on their own rockets to stimulate ticket sales.

However, their flight barely crossed the space, and it only lasted a few minutes.

Isaacman and others-St Jude Children’s Research Hospital physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux and lottery winner Chris Sembroski, a data engineer, and Sian Proctor, a community college educator-said on the eve of the release that they had little last-minute nervousness mood.

This will be the first time in 60 years of manned spaceflight that no professional astronaut has boarded an orbiting rocket.

The passenger’s fully automated capsule is already in orbit: it was used by SpaceX for NASA’s second astronaut flight to the space station.

On September 15, a photographer set up a remote camera near the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA [AP Photo/Chris O’Meara]

According to Reid, the only major change in the capsule is that the large dome window on the top replaces the usual docking mechanism for the space station.

Isaacman, the founder of a payment processing company and a successful pilot, said that SpaceX CEO Musk assured him, “The entire leadership team is focused on this task and is very confident.”

He added: “This obviously also inspired our confidence in us.”

Musk, hundreds of SpaceX employees, and representatives of St. Jude’s Hospital participated in the launch.

Isaacman is using this flight to raise $200 million for St. Jude, half of which comes from his own pocket.

Although NASA has no role in this voyage, its managers and astronauts are all cheering for the flight called Inspiration4.

“For me, the more people involved, the better, whether private or government,” said NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrecht, whose six-month stay on the space station is coming to an end.