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This is the first time that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has participated in the space travel dollar competition.
SpaceX’s first private flight entered orbit on Wednesday night with two contest winners, a healthcare worker and their wealthy sponsor, and it was the most ambitious leap in space tourism to date.
This is the first time a spacecraft has orbited the Earth without a full amateur crew and no professional astronauts.
“Hit it, SpaceX!” Jared Isaacman, the billionaire leader of the flight, urged before taking off.
The two men and two women in the Dragon capsule hope to spend three days from an unusually high orbit — 100 miles (160 kilometers) higher than the International Space Station — orbiting the Earth — and then splashing off the coast of Florida this weekend.
This is the first time that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has participated in the space travel dollar competition.
Lift off @Inspiration4X! Go to Falcon 9! Go to the dragon! pic.twitter.com/NhRXkD4IWg
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
Isaacman is the third billionaire to launch this summer, after Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos conducted a short space flight in July. At only 38 years old, Isaacman made a fortune from a payment processing company he founded when he was a teenager.
Dragon has been separated from the second stage of Falcon 9 pic.twitter.com/pOfgJ9LsvE
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
Joining Isaacman on the trip called Inspiration4 was 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, a child bone cancer survivor who worked as a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Isaacman has pledged to the hospital to spend US$100 million out of his pocket, and is seeking another US$100 million in donations.
Arceneaux became the youngest American in space and the first person to install a prosthesis in space, with a titanium rod on her left leg.
Also participating in the event were lucky draw winner Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona.
NASA, which once opposed space tourism, is now a supporter. “Low Earth orbit now makes it easier for more people to experience the wonders of space,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on Twitter, a member of Congress who boarded the space shuttle decades ago.
The recovered Falcon rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by the company’s previous three astronaut flights for NASA. But this time, the Dragon capsule aimed at an altitude of 575 kilometers, just beyond the Hubble Space Telescope.
Across the country, SpaceX employees at the headquarters of Hawthorne, California, cheered enthusiastically at every flight milestone, including when the used first-stage booster landed upright on an ocean platform. Thomas Pesquet, a French astronaut from the space station, said on Twitter: “Whether you are a professional or not, when you are strapped to a rocket and launched into space, we have something in common. From space All the best things.”
When Isaacman reached orbit, he pointed out that very few people have been to space—less than 600 in 60 years. But he added, “Many people are about to follow suit. The door is now open, which is incredible.”
Their capsule is in orbit: it was used by SpaceX for NASA’s second astronaut flight to the space station. The only significant change is that the large dome window on the top replaces the usual docking mechanism for the space station.
As a successful pilot, Isaacman convinced SpaceX to take the fully automated Dragon capsule to unprecedented heights. Initially reluctant due to increased radiation exposure and other risks, SpaceX agreed after a security review.
“Now I just hope we can push them higher,” Isaacman told reporters on the eve of the flight. “If we are going to the moon again, and we are going to Mars and beyond, then we must slightly exceed our comfort zone and take the next step in that direction.”
Isaacman’s Shift4 Payments company is located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was responsible for paying the entire cost of the flight, but would not disclose how many million dollars he paid. He and others believe that these high-priced labels will ultimately reduce costs.
“Yes, today you must have and be willing to spend a lot of cash to buy a space trip for yourself,” said Richard Garriott, chairman of the Explorers Club, the son of a NASA astronaut who paid for the Russians The cost of traveling to the space station is more than a decade ago. “But this is the only way for us to lower prices and expand access, just like in other industries before.
Although the capsule is automated, the four dragoon riders spent six months conducting flight training to deal with any emergencies. Training includes centrifuge and fighter jet flights, launch and reentry exercises in the SpaceX capsule simulator, and trekking in the snow to Mount Rainier in Washington.
Four hours before liftoff, the four met with Musk before coming out of SpaceX’s huge rocket hangar, waved to their family and company employees, and then they were driven away and put on smooth white flight suits. After arriving at the launch pad, they took a group photo and touched them with their gloved fists, and then took the elevator upstairs. Proctor walked to the hatch while dancing.
Unlike NASA’s mission, the public will not be able to listen to or watch the development of the event in real time. Arceneaux hopes to establish contact with St. Jude patients, but the conversation will not be broadcast live.
SpaceX’s next private trip early next year will see a retired NASA astronaut escorting three wealthy businessmen to the space station for a week-long visit. The Russians will send an actress, film director and a Japanese tycoon to the space station in the coming months.
“One day, NASA astronauts will be the exception, not the rule,” said Mason Peck of Cornell University, an engineering professor who served as NASA’s chief technologist nearly a decade ago. “But they may continue to be trailblazers for the rest of us to follow.”
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