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This photo provided by SpaceX shows Inspiration4 passengers in the Dragon capsule on their first day in space. They are, from left to right, Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor. (SpaceX via AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – A SpaceX capsule carrying four space tourists was targeting a water landing off the coast of Florida on Saturday night.
The first fully amateur flight to orbit the Earth began three days ago with a launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The billionaire who paid for the theft, Jared Isaacman, took with him two contest winners, as well as a childhood cancer survivor who is now a physician assistant at the hospital where she was treated: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
They use the flight dubbed Inspiration4 to try to raise $ 200 million for St. Jude.
Foreigners until March, they spent six months training and preparing for potential emergencies aboard the Dragon automated capsule. Once in orbit, they chatted with patients in St. Jude, performed medical tests on themselves, rang the closing bell for the New York Stock Exchange, and dabbled in drawing and playing the ukulele.
This will be the first landing on the Atlantic by a returning space crew in over 50 years. SpaceX’s previous two crew landings, featuring NASA astronauts, have been in the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX is planning up to six private flights a year, sandwiched between astronaut launches for NASA to the International Space Station.
In this August 8, 2021 photo courtesy of John Kraus, from left to right, Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux stand for a photo in Bozeman, MT on a weekend ‘of’ fighter plane training ”to familiarize the crew with G-forces. (John Kraus / Inspiration4 via AP)
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