In the early hours of this Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center , one of the NASA bases in the state of Florida, the Inspiration4 was launched, the SpaceX spacecraft manned by those who are the first tourists in space and who go to carry out a mission that will last three days.
Inspiration4: This is the SpaceX mission that has launched the first tourists in space
With much excitement from the passengers, Inspiration4 has launched into orbit with the first space tourists from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, who will carry out a three-day mission in orbit around the Earth.
“No jitters, we’re excited to go!”: This is how American billionaire Jared Isaacman described his mood to reporters ahead of the launch early Thursday morning. Isaacman is the entrepreneur (founder of Shift4 Payments), pilot and amateur astronaut who would have paid a whopping $ 200 million (although no one confirms the figure) to fly into space accompanied by other civilians to whom he has paid the ticket.
Behind him, was the giant Falcon 9 rocket , in which the four crew members, all civilians, of the mission already travel, which is called Inspiration4 and which adds to the previous launches of recent months both by Virgin and Blue Origin , owned by Jeff Bezos.
You can re-watch the launch of the #Inspiration4 mission here: https://t.co/rrK4BZy3Fu pic.twitter.com/rMET0QFtGs
— Inspiration4 (@inspiration4x) September 16, 2021
The four civilians who fly into space
The other Inspiration4 passengers are Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old medical assistant, Chris Sembroski , a 42-year-old Air Force veteran, and Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old geology professor who is also the first African-American woman to take on the role of “Pilot” in a space flight.
They all say they get along, even if they didn’t know each other before they started training just about six months ago. “Since the announcement … every day has been the best of my life, and it’s only getting better,” Proctor said.
The four have already left this morning and their mission will take them to spend three days flying in low Earth orbit , perhaps even higher than the Space Station (390 kilometers high). In addition, the four crew members have been selected according to SpaceX on the basis of four different human characteristics that well represent the spirit with which Earthlings look to the future of space exploration: leadership, prosperity, generosity and hope.
Inspiration4’s mission goal
The objective of the mission is also completely new in the space exploration landscape since it is not scientific research but charity. In fact, the purpose of Inspiration4 is to raise $ 200 million in funding for childhood cancer research conducted by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the most advanced centers in the world. Thus, anyone can somehow “finance” this space mission by sending their donation through the Spacex page.
