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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla .– A SpaceX rocket took off from a launch pad here Wednesday evening, carrying four Americans on a three-day orbiting Earth adventure that will be unlike any other.
None of the crew works for NASA. The mission, known as Inspiration4, is the first orbital voyage where none of the people on board are professional astronauts and the government is, on the whole, a spectator and an observer.
The evening sky was almost cloudless as the Falcon 9 rocket’s nine engines ignited, lifting the rocket and its passengers into space.
Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire and founder of Shift4, a payment processing service, funded the trip. As the mission commander, he thanked those who made it possible and said that it had brought him and the crew “on the doorstep of an exciting and unexplored frontier”.
“A few have already come, but many are about to follow,” he said. “The door is opening now, and it’s pretty amazing.”
Mr. Isaacman’s public profile is much lower than that of Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos, two billionaires who flew to the edge of space in July in vehicles operated by companies they own. These trips lasted only a few minutes before returning to the ground.
But perhaps more noteworthy is Mr. Isaacman’s three-day adventure, a step towards a future where space travel could be like air travel today – accessible to almost anyone.
That’s because Mr. Isaacman decided not to just take his friends on this trip to space. Instead, he opened up opportunities for three people he didn’t know.
“We set out from the start to deliver a very inspiring message,” Mr. Isaacman said at a press conference on Tuesday, “and chose to do so through an interesting crew selection process. “
The result is a mission that carries a crew more representative of society at large – Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old medical assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old community college professor who would be the first black woman to pilot a spaceship; and Christopher Sembroski, a 42-year-old data engineer.
Mr. Isaacman declined to say how much he is paying for this orbital trip, only that it was less than the $ 200 million he hopes to raise for St. Jude with a fundraising campaign, one of the stated goals. of the trip.
At a press conference the day before the launch, the crew members expressed their enthusiasm and said they did not feel nervous.
Ms Arceneaux’s Instagram profile included images of the Kennedy Space Center. In one message, she posed in front of the Falcon 9 rocket with her mother, brother and sister-in-law. Another, which was taken from the launch tower, included the caption: “She’s ready, we’re ready.”
Dr. Proctor posted a portrait of herself in her custom SpaceX spacesuit, proclaiming herself “Ready to fly!” “
On Twitter, Mr. Isaacman responded to some of his followers late at night with details of the trip. In response to a question from a CNBC reporter about the potential for a delayed return to Earth due to weather conditions or other factors, he said they would be able to stay in space for “about a week”.
Late Wednesday afternoon, a live video broadcast over the internet showing the astronauts donning their spacesuits in a SpaceX building near the launch pad. It is a change from the NASA center used by NASA astronauts and reflects the shift from a mission in government service to a mission focused on private enterprise.
The astronauts then made a short trip by Tesla SUV to the launch pad about three hours before takeoff. They climbed by elevator to the top of the launch tower, 255 feet high, and crossed a bridge to the Crew Dragon capsule. They stopped, beaming wide smiles, to admire the view. They signed the wall of what is called the “white room”, a space just outside the capsule door.
The technicians then sealed them in the spacecraft. Two and a half hours before launch, they were all strapped in and doing communications system checks. Then there was a long wait before the rocket was filled with propellant, 35 minutes before takeoff.
Sarah Gillis, the chief space operations engineer for SpaceX who guided the crew into orbit from mission control, wished them good luck and good speed.
“It has been an absolute honor to prepare you for this historic flight,” she said.
Once the flight was launched, the enthusiasm of the crew was not distorted by the forces weighing on them, as a video inside the capsule showed Dr Proctor and Mr Sembroski bumping into each other fist.
The capsule then moved into an orbit about 360 miles, higher than the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. Indeed, the Inspiration4 crew will be further from Earth than anyone since the Apollo lunar missions ended in the 1970s.
Inspiration4 crew members will spend much of their time in orbit helping advance medical research into how the human body reacts to being in space.
Other activities will be more fun. Dr Proctor, for example, will be making works of art.
“I am delighted to bring painting and to make art in space, and to think only of the fluids and the dynamics of watercolors,” she said on Tuesday.
Mr. Sembroski took a ukulele with him and plans to play and sing in the Crew Dragon.
“I apologize for all ears that are listening intently, but I will do my best,” he said. “And I know the acoustics are pretty good.”
The payload also includes items that are auctioned off to raise funds for the St. Jude Children’s Research Center, which treats children for free and develops cures for childhood cancers as well as other illnesses. (Ms. Arceneaux was a patient in the hospital as a child, before returning to work as an adult.)
Once in orbit, they will circle the planet, 15 trips around the planet each day, until Saturday when they are expected to return to Earth, splashing off the coast of Florida.
Jesus Jimenez contributed reporting from New York.
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