[ad_1]
SpaceX launched the world’s first crew of “amateur astronauts” on a private flight to circle the Earth for three days.
Wednesday night’s successful launch marked the most ambitious leap to date in space tourism. This is the first passenger chartered flight for Elon Musk’s space company and the first time a rocket has headed into orbit with a crew that contained no professional astronauts.
“It blows my mind, honestly,” SpaceX director Benji Reed said on the eve of the launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “It gives me goosebumps even right now to talk about it.”
At the helm of the theft is Jared Isaacman, 38, who made his fortune with a payment processing company he started as a teenager. Isaacman is the third billionaire to launch this summer, following the flights of Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin in July.
Isaacman is joined by Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a childhood cancer survivor who works as a medical assistant at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Isaacman has pledged $ 100 million of his own money to the hospital and is seeking an additional $ 100 million in donations.
Contest winners Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Wash., And Sian Proctor, 51, a community college teacher in Tempe, Ariz., Are also in the game.
Arceneaux is set to become the youngest American woman in space and the first person in space with a prosthesis, a titanium rod in her left leg.
Passengers will spend three days orbiting Earth at an unusually high altitude of 357 miles (575 km) – 100 miles (160 km) higher than the International Space Station – before landing off the coast of Florida this weekend.
Although NASA plays no role in the process, its managers and astronauts support the flight, dubbed Inspiration4.
“For me, the more people involved, whether private or government, the better,” said NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is nearing the end of his six-month stay in the city. space station.
Isaacman, an accomplished pilot, persuaded SpaceX to take the Dragon capsule higher than it has ever been. Initially reluctant due to the increased radiation exposure and other risks, SpaceX agreed after a safety review.
“Now I just wish we would push them to go higher,” Isaacman told reporters the day before the flight. “If we’re going to the Moon again and we’re going to Mars and beyond, then we have to step out of our comfort zone a bit and take the next step in that direction.”
Isaacman takes the entire bill for the theft but won’t say how many millions he paid.
Although the capsule is automated, the four Dragon pilots spent six months training for the flight to cope with any emergency. This training included flights of centrifuges and fighter jets, launch and re-entry exercises in SpaceX’s capsule simulator, and a grueling hike on Washington’s Mount Rainier in the snow.
Four hours before takeoff, the four men emerged from SpaceX’s massive rocket hangar, greeting and sending kisses to their families and company employees, before being whisked away to don their elegant white flight suits. . Once on the launch pad, they posed for photos and banged their gloved fists, before taking the elevator. Proctor danced as she walked over to the hatch.
SpaceX’s next private trip, early next year, will see a retired NASA astronaut escort three wealthy businessmen to the space station for a week-long visit. The Russians are launching a Japanese actor, director and mogul to the space station in the coming months.
Formerly opposed to space tourism, NASA is now a supporter. The shift from government astronauts to non-professionals “is simply staggering,” said former NASA administrator Charles Bolden, former commander of the space shuttle.
“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 ten years ago. years. “But they will likely continue to be the trailblazers that the rest of us will follow.”
[ad_2]
Source link