SpaceX capsule with world first all-civilian crew set for splashdown
SpaceX supplied the spacecraft, launched it from Florida and flew it from the company's suburban Los Angeles headquarters.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavor, carrying four astronauts, approaches the International Space Station orbiting the Earth (photo credit: MIKE HOPKINS/NASA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavor, carrying four astronauts, approaches the International Space Station orbiting the Earth (photo credit: MIKE HOPKINS/NASA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
The quartet of newly minted citizen astronauts comprising the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission were due to splash down in the Atlantic off Florida on Saturday, completing a three-day flight of the first all-civilian crew ever launched into Earth orbit.
To
prepare for atmospheric re-entry and return to Earth, the SpaceX Crew
Dragon vehicle completed two rocket "burns" on Friday to lower its
altitude and line up the capsule's trajectory with the targeted landing
site.
The Dragon
capsule, dubbed Resilience, is scheduled to parachute into the sea
around 7 p.m. Eastern time, shortly before sunset, according to SpaceX,
the private rocketry company founded by Tesla Inc electric automaker CEO
Elon Musk.
SpaceX supplied the spacecraft, launched it from Florida and flew it from the company's suburban Los Angeles headquarters.
The
Inspiration4 team blasted off on Wednesday from the Kennedy Space
Center in Cape Canaveral atop one of SpaceX's two-stage reusable Falcon 9
rockets.
Within
three hours the crew capsule had reached a cruising orbital altitude of
just over 363 miles (585 km) - higher than the International Space
Station or Hubble Space Telescope, and the farthest any human has flown
from Earth since NASA's Apollo moon program ended in 1972.
NASA and SpaceX launch the first operational commercial crew mission (credit: REUTERS)
It
also marked the debut flight of Musk's new space tourism business and a
leap ahead of competitors likewise offering rides on rocket ships to
well-heeled customers willing to pay a small fortune to experience the
exhilaration of spaceflight and earn amateur astronaut wings.
The
Inspiration4 team was led by its wealthy benefactor, Jared Isaacman,
chief executive of the e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments Inc, who assumed
the role of mission "commander."
He
had paid an undisclosed but reportedly enormous sum - put by Time
magazine at roughly $200 million - to fellow billionaire Musk for all
four seats aboard the Crew Dragon.
Isaacman
was joined by three less affluent crewmates he had selected -
geoscientist and former NASA astronaut candidate Sian Proctor, 51,
physician's assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley
Arceneaux, 29, and aerospace data engineer and Air Force veteran Chris
Sembroski, 42.
Isaacman
conceived of the flight primarily to raise awareness and donations for
one of his favorite causes, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a
leading pediatric cancer center in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arceneaux
was a patient and now works.
The
Inspiration4 crew had no part to play in flying the spacecraft, which
was operated by ground-based flight teams and onboard guidance systems,
even though Isaacman and Proctor are both licensed pilots.
SpaceX
already ranked as the most well-established player in the burgeoning
constellation of commercial rocket ventures, having launched numerous
cargo payloads and astronauts to the space station for NASA.
Two
rival operators, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc and Blue Origin,
inaugurated their own astro-tourism services in recent months, with
their respective founding executives, billionaires Richard Branson and
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, each going along for the ride.
Those suborbital flights, lasting a matter of minutes, were short hops compared with Inspiration4's three days in orbit.
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He
had paid an undisclosed but reportedly enormous sum - put by Time
magazine at roughly $200 million - to fellow billionaire Musk for all
four seats aboard the Crew Dragon.
Isaacman
was joined by three less affluent crewmates he had selected -
geoscientist and former NASA astronaut candidate Sian Proctor, 51,
physician's assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley
Arceneaux, 29, and aerospace data engineer and Air Force veteran Chris
Sembroski, 42.
Isaacman
conceived of the flight primarily to raise awareness and donations for
one of his favorite causes, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a
leading pediatric cancer center in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arceneaux
was a patient and now works.
The
Inspiration4 crew had no part to play in flying the spacecraft, which
was operated by ground-based flight teams and onboard guidance systems,
even though Isaacman and Proctor are both licensed pilots.
SpaceX
already ranked as the most well-established player in the burgeoning
constellation of commercial rocket ventures, having launched numerous
cargo payloads and astronauts to the space station for NASA.
Two
rival operators, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc and Blue Origin,
inaugurated their own astro-tourism services in recent months, with
their respective founding executives, billionaires Richard Branson and
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, each going along for the ride.
Those suborbital flights, lasting a matter of minutes, were short hops compared with Inspiration4's three days in orbit.
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