The Inspiration4 crew sits inside a model Crew Dragon spaceship. Left to right: Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman, and Hayley Arceneaux. SpaceX
SpaceX sent four civilians into space earlier in September as part of the Inspiration4 mission.
The crew had a problem with the toilet after the fan inside it malfunctioned, per a CNN interview.
SpaceX staff had to instruct them how to fix it, but were interrupted by communications blackouts.
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The world’s first all-civilian astronaut crew faced an unexpected problem when they flew into orbit earlier this month – they had to fix the toilet fan after it set off an alarm.
The Inspiration4 mission took off on September 16, sending four civilian astronauts into orbit for three days onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mentioned in a tweet on September 21 that the Inspiration4 crew had “some challenges” with the toilet, which was located at the nose of the Crew Dragon spacecraft inside a glass dome roof. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, crew member Jared Isaacman explained what had happened.
Toilets in space have fans to generate suction, ensuring any human waste goes in the right direction – but the fan on the spacecraft malfunctioned, triggering an alarm, Isaacman said.
Isaacman told CNN that the SpaceX team had to instruct the Inspiration4 crew on how to fix the fan, but that frequent communications blackouts interrupted the process.
“I would say probably somewhere around 10% of our time on orbit we had no [communication with the ground], and we were a very calm, cool crew during that,” Isaacman told CNN.
“We were able to work through it and get [the toilet] going even with what was initially challenging circumstances, so there was nothing ever like, you know, in the cabin or anything like that,” Isaacman said.
Isaacman said that the Inspiration4 crew had previously talked to some NASA astronauts about the toilet, and the astronauts told them that “using the bathroom in space is hard, and you’ve got to be very – what was the word? – very kind to one another.”
Elon Musk took a swipe at President Biden after the commander in chief failed to acknowledge SpaceX’s completion of its first all-civilian mission, in which four amateur astronauts orbited Earth for three days.
SPACEX TO MAKE HISTORY WITH ALL-CIVILIAN CREW MISSION, INSPIRATION4
One of Musk’s 60 million Twitter followers pointed out that the White House and Biden had yet to comment on the mission, which successfully returned to Earth Saturday evening.
“The President of the United States has refused to even acknowledge the 4 newest American astronauts who helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for St. Jude,” user @rhensing wrote. “What’s your theory on why that is?”
“He’s still sleeping,” Musk responded Sunday afternoon.
As of Monday morning, the White House had yet to comment on the mission, dubbed “Inspiration4,” which marks the first time an all-civilian crew has ever made it to Earth’s orbit.
The crew — Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Dr. Sian Proctor — spent three days circling the planet at an altitude of more than 335 miles, about 75 miles higher than the International Space Station and on a level with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Isaacman, 38, an accomplished jet pilot, commanded the mission after reportedly paying $200 million for the privilege.
The billionaire donated two of the seats on the mission. The other went to Sembroski, who won a sweepstakes that raised $113 million in St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital donations.
The flight helped raise more than $200 million for St. Jude’s after a $50 million donation from Musk himself.
The Crew Dragon capsule that carried the quintet of astronauts splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday evening, shortly after 7 p.m. ET.
SpaceX launches world’s first all-civilian human spaceflight
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“On behalf of Space X, welcome home to planet Earth,” a dispatcher said to the crew on a live stream of the event.
“Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us, and that everyday people can make extraordinary impacts on the world around them.”
Top officials from The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, including NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, congratulated those involved in the mission.
SpaceX aerospace competitors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin, also congratulated the company on the mission.
It’s not the first time Musk has been at odds with the Biden administration. Last month, Musk said that no one from Tesla was invited to the White House for a summit on the future of electric cars even as rivals Ford, GM and Stellantis were present.
And more recently, Musk criticized a Biden administration proposal that would allocate an extra $4,500 in incentives to buyers of certain, new electric cars — but only if they’re made in the US by unionized workers.
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Tesla’s factories are not union-represented and Musk has opposed unionization efforts in the past.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (left) and President Joe Biden. Win McNamee/Getty Images/Susan Walsh/AP
Elon Musk made fun of President Joe Biden for not congratulating SpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew.
Musk said Biden was sleeping instead – evoking Donald Trump’s “Sleepy Joe” nickname for Biden.
Musk also responded to a tweet attacking Biden and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
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Elon Musk made fun of President Joe Biden on Sunday, alluding to former President Donald Trump’s nickname for Biden, “Sleepy Joe.”
A Twitter user asked why Biden had not yet congratulated the crew of SpaceX’s Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian space mission. The crew landed on Saturday evening after orbiting the Earth for three days.
“He’s still sleeping,” Musk replied.
Musk’s jibe alluded to the derogatory nickname Trump used for Biden during the 2020 presidential election.
Musk also responded to a meme on Twitter that appeared to attack the Biden administration’s relationship with unions.
The meme showed a scene from the film “Alien.” In the meme, a parasitic alien clamped onto a person’s face was labelled “UAW” (United Auto Workers) and the person labelled “Biden.”
Musk appeared to agree with the meme, commenting “seems that way,” underneath it.
Musk last week criticized a Democrat-led bill that would give a $4,500 tax incentive to consumers buying electric vehicles built by unionized companies. He claimed, without evidence, that lobbyists for the UAW and Ford had written the bill.
Tesla has historically opposed unionization, and in March the National Labor Relations Board ordered Musk to remove a 2018 anti-union tweet and re-hire a fired union activist. Tesla appealed the ruling in April.
Biden appeared to snub Tesla at an August White House event that showcased electric vehicles. Musk tweeted at the time: “Seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited.”
Musk also said in February that he’d spoken to the Biden administration about the possibility of introducing a carbon tax, but that the administration had dismissed it as too politically difficult.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk poses with the crew before launch on September 15, 2021.
John Kraus / Inspiration4
After SpaceX completed a historic, private spaceflight on Saturday, CEO Elon Musk took a pot shot at President Joe Biden who had yet to remark on the company’s and the civilian flight crew’s accomplishments.
One of Musk’s 60 million followers on the social networking platform Twitter asked him, “The President of the United States has refused to even acknowledge the 4 newest American astronauts who helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for St. Jude. What’s your theory on why that is?”
Musk replied, “He’s still sleeping.”
As CNBC previously reported, SpaceX safely returned its Crew Dragon spacecraft from orbit yesterday. The capsule carried the four members of the Inspiration4 mission back to Earth after three days in space.
One major goal of the Inspiration4 mission was to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It had raised $160.2 million by Saturday. Celebrating after Inspiration4 splashed down, Musk pledged to contribute $50 million personally — pushing the campaign’s total raised to $210 million.
The White House and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Top NASA officials have congratulated Musk and SpaceX on the Inspiration4 mission. SpaceX competitors acknowledged it too, with accolades from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin and Musk’s peer and rival Jeff Bezos shared on social media.
This marked the first private SpaceX spaceflight, with a non-professional crew. Additionally, the mission involved the first Black woman to serve as a spacecraft pilot, the youngest American to become an astronaut to date, and the first person to fly in space with a prosthesis.
Although Musk recently stated that he “would prefer to stay out of politics,” his quip on Sunday indicated a willingness to needle the Democratic president and repeat a right-wing taunt about Biden.
During his 2020 campaign, former President Donald Trump frequently insulted then-candidate Biden by calling him “Sleepy Joe.”
More recently, Trump sent Biden sarcastic well-wishes ahead of a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. He said in an e-mailed statement at the time, “Good luck to Biden in dealing with President Putin— don’t fall asleep during the meeting, and please give him my warmest regards!”
SpaceX generally enjoys a good relationship with the federal government. For example, it won a $2.89 billion contract to build NASA’s next crewed lunar lander, beating out Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Leidos subsidiary Dynetics, and SpaceX has flown 10 astronauts to the ISS for NASA to date.
However, SpaceX is also under investigation by the Department of Justice after accusations that it discriminated against job applicants based on citizenship status — a probe that began during the Trump administration.
In addition to his responsibilities at SpaceX, Musk is concurrently the CEO of electric vehicle makers Tesla. (Tesla is also a supplier to SpaceX.)
In that capacity, he recently bemoaned a Biden administration proposal that would allocate an extra $4,500 in incentives to buyers of certain, new electric light-duty passenger vehicles. One stipulation of the proposal is that electric vehicles should be union-made, domestically.
While the company operates a battery factory in Nevada, and a vehicle assembly plant in California already, with another under construction outside of Austin, Texas, Tesla is the only major U.S. automaker whose production is not unionized here.
Musk said, on Twitter on September 12, of the proposal: “This is written by Ford/UAW lobbyists, as they make their electric car in Mexico. Not obvious how this serves American taxpayers.”
In Cars.com’s annual American Made Index for 2021, Tesla’s popular Model 3 electric sedan topped the rankings, and its crossover Model Y landed in third place.
An all-civilian crew streaked into space atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday on the first privately funded, non-government trip to orbit, a historic three-day flight devoted to raising $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Strapped in along with billionaire Jared Isaacman, who chartered the mission, were Chris Sembroski, an “everyday” aerospace engineer; Sian Proctor, an artist-educator who will become only the fourth Black woman to fly in space; and Hayley Arceneaux, a St. Jude cancer survivor who now works at the hospital.
“Inspiration4 is go for launch,” Isaacman radioed flight controllers moments before liftoff. “Punch it, SpaceX!”
And punch it they did. The Falcon 9’s first stage engines ignited on time at 8:02 p.m. EDT, lighting up the early evening sky as the booster thundered away from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust.
The Inspiration4 civilian crew aboard a Crew Dragon capsule and SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
SpaceX
The sky-lighting ascent went smoothly with the first stage, making its third flight, powering the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere. The booster’s nine engines shut down two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the stage fell away and the flight continued on the power of the upper stage’s single vacuum-rated engine.
The first stage, meanwhile, flipped around and flew itself back to a pinpoint landing on an off-shore drone ship, chalking up SpaceX’s 92nd successful booster recovery, it’s 69th at sea.
By that point, nine-and-a-half minutes after launch, the second stage and the Crew Dragon capsule were safely in the planned preliminary orbit. Two rocket firings were required to circularize the orbit at an altitude of 357 miles, 100 miles above the International Space Station.
That’s higher than anyone has flown since the last shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
A special photography technique shows a streak in the sky indicating the flight path of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the evening of Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
Courtesy: Inspiration4
From that lofty perch, Isaacman and his Inspiration4 crewmates will enjoy unrivaled 360-degree views of Earth and deep space through a clear, custom-built dome, or cupola, in the nose of the capsule that has replaced the docking mechanism used for NASA flights to the space station.
“We gave you a great ride to orbit,” Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s former chief of space operations and now a senior SpaceX manager, radioed the crew after spacecraft separation. “Enjoy your time on orbit, and we look forward to you flying again with SpaceX.”
Isaacman said the flight carried the crew “right to the doorstep of an exciting and unexplored frontier where few have come before and many are about to follow. The door’s opening now. And it’s pretty incredible.”
The Inspiration4 crew poses at the base of the Falcon 9 rocket before strapping in for launch. Left to right: Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and mission commander Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who paid for the first privately funded trip to orbit.
SpaceX
Asked before launch if anyone in the crew had any trepidation about riding a rocket to space, Isaacman said SpaceX founder Elon Musk gave the crew “his assurances that the entire leadership team is solely focused on this mission and is very confident. And that obviously inspires a lot of confidence for us as well. But no jitters, excited to get going.”
Added Arceneaux: “Any jitters are the good kind.”
Shortly after Wednesday’s launch, former first lady Michelle Obama tweeted her congratulations to those onboard, writing, “I’m thinking of all the young people who’ll be looking up to this crew and dreaming big thanks to them.”
It was an honor getting to speak with @DrSianProctor and the incredible #Inspiration4 crew. They’re inspiring us all with their courage, curiosity, and passion. I’m thinking of all the young people who’ll be looking up to this crew and dreaming big thanks to them. Ad astra! 💫🚀 pic.twitter.com/6uAyFI2Z5D
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) September 16, 2021
While billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos made headlines earlier this summer when they spent a few minutes in weightlessness during up-and-down sub-orbital flights, the Inspiration4 crew will spend three days orbiting the Earth before returning to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean Saturday night.
Isaacman said the flight marked an “inspiring” first step toward opening up the high frontier to civilian use.
“We set out from the start to deliver a very inspiring message, certainly what can be done up in space and the possibilities there, but also what we can accomplish here on Earth,” he said.
That included “the largest fundraising effort in the history of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, acknowledging the real responsibilities we have here on Earth in order to earn the right to make progress up in space,” he said. “And I feel like we’re well on our way to achieving that objective.”
The crew plans an in-flight event with patients at St. Jude and will carry out a battery of medical tests and experiments throughout the mission, including use of an ultrasound device to help measure headward fluid shifts caused by the onset of weightlessness.
Fluid shifts, interactions with the neuro-vestibular, or balance, system and other reactions trigger space motion sickness in about half the astronauts who fly in space, an uncomfortable malady that typically fades away after two to three days as the body adapts to the new environment.
“Space sickness is one of the interesting things that this mission is going to explore, just like all the NASA missions that have gone before,” said Todd Ericson, a former Air Force test pilot who is helping manage the Inspiration4 mission for Isaacman.
“Each person reacts differently,” he said. “Fighter pilots get as sick as non fighter pilots and vice versa. The medical team at SpaceX has a lot of experience in this area … they’ve got a regimen in place to minimize that and then treat it if it actually gets severe.”
Childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux enjoys the view from the launch pad access arm leading to the Inspiration4 Crew Dragon capsule.
An all-civilian crew braced for blastoff Wednesday evening atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first privately funded, non-government trip to orbit the Earth. The three-day Inspiration4 mission is devoted to raising $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, who chartered the mission, will be joined by Chris Sembroski, an aerospace engineer; Sian Proctor, an artist-educator who will become only the fourth Black woman to fly in space; and Hayley Arceneaux, a childhood cancer survivor who was treated at St. Jude and now works at the hospital. At age 29, Arceneaux will be the youngest American to fly in space.
Blastoff from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 8:02 p.m. EDT, kicking off a 12-minute climb to a 360-mile-high orbit, 100 miles above the International Space Station. It’s the highest anyone will have flown since the last shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
From that lofty perch, Isaacman and his Inspiration4 crewmates will enjoy unrivaled 360-degree views of Earth and deep space through a clear, custom-built dome, or cupola, in the nose of the capsule that has replaced the docking mechanism used for NASA flights to the space station.
The Inspiration4 crew, checking out their SpaceX pressure suits while visiting the Crew Dragon capsule that will carry them into space on the first all-civilian flight to orbit.
Inspiration4
The fully automated flight will mark SpaceX’s 125th Falcon 9 launch, its 22nd so far this year and its fourth piloted Crew Dragon mission.
The capsule is equipped with a “full envelope” abort system to instantly propel the spacecraft away from a malfunctioning booster, resulting in an emergency splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX did not provide details about its crew rescue plans, but says adequate safeguards are in place.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet, an Inspiration4 mission director and former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot, said Isaacman and company are as prepared as any professional astronauts.
“This training has made them 100 percent prepared for any contingency that they’re going to experience on orbit,” he said.
“They have gone through six months of the same training that any NASA astronaut would” including centrifuge runs, rides in the fighter jets Isaacman flies as a hobby, months of classroom study and a 30-hour practice run in a Crew Dragon simulator.
Asked if anyone had any trepidation about riding a rocket to space, Isaacman said SpaceX founder Elon Musk gave the crew “his assurances that the entire leadership team is solely focused on this mission and is very confident. And that obviously inspires a lot of confidence for us as well. But no jitters, excited to get going.”
Added Arceneaux: “Any jitters are the good kind.”
Meet first all-civilian crew to orbit Earth
05:45
While billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos made headlines earlier this summer when they spent a few minutes in weightlessness during up-and-down sub-orbital flights, the Inspiration4 crew will spend three days orbiting the Earth before returning to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean Saturday night.
Isaacman said the flight marked an “inspiring” first step toward opening up the high frontier to civilian use.
“We set out from the start to deliver a very inspiring message, certainly what can be done up in space and the possibilities there, but also what we can accomplish here on Earth,” he said.
That included “the largest fundraising effort in the history of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, acknowledging the real responsibilities we have here on Earth in order to earn the right to make progress up in space,” he said. “And I feel like we’re well on our way to achieving that objective.”
The crew plans an in-flight event with patients at St. Jude and will carry out a battery of medical tests and experiments throughout the mission, including use of an ultrasound device to help measure headward fluid shifts caused by the onset of weightlessness.
Fluid shifts, interactions with the neuro-vestibular, or balance, system and other reactions trigger space motion sickness in about half the astronauts who fly in space, an uncomfortable malady that typically fades away after two to three days as the body adapts to the new environment.
“Space sickness is one of the interesting things that this mission is going to explore, just like all the NASA missions that have gone before,” said Todd Ericson, a former Air Force test pilot who is helping manage the Inspiration4 mission for Isaacman.
“Each person reacts differently,” he said. “Fighter pilots get as sick as non fighter pilots and vice versa. The medical team at SpaceX has a lot of experience in this area … they’ve got a regimen in place to minimize that and then treat it if it actually gets severe.”
Inspiration4’s Crew Dragon waits on top of a Falcon9 rocket for a launch into orbit.
Inspiration4
Hot on the rocket-fueled-heels of the billionaire space race, four “everyday people” are ready to make space history when they strap into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and go for a three-day joyride around our planet. The Inspiration4 mission, which doubles as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, is scheduled to launch as soon as Wednesday, and you can watch live right here.
What time is the SpaceX launch?
The five-hour launch window opens at 5:02 p.m. PT/8:02 p.m. ET.
“All systems and weather are looking good for today’s Falcon 9 launch of Dragon’s first all-civilian spaceflight,” SpaceX tweeted Thursday. The video broadcast, from SpaceX, is scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. PT and can be found below.
The spacecraft will get off this rock with an assist from a Falcon 9 rocket leaving from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It’ll be a similar process to how SpaceX launches NASA astronauts, but Inspiration4 won’t be traveling to the International Space Station.
Inspiration4 is billed as “the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit.” The crew will fly much higher and longer than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos or Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson did on their recent suborbital flights.
Meet the Inspiration4 crew
Billionaire Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman is the commander of the mission, and he’s also funding it. Isaacman is an experienced aircraft pilot. He was a member of the Black Diamond Jet Team, a civilian aerobatic team, and has flown in over 100 air shows. That pilot training gave him a solid foundation for learning the ropes of the Dragon spacecraft.
The Inspiration4 crew from left to right: Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux.
Inspiration4
Childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, aerospace industry professional Chris Sembroski and geoscientist Sian Proctor make up the rest of the crew. Arecenaux was treated at St. Jude and now works at the hospital as a physician assistant.
Sembroski was once a US Space Camp counselor, and also served in the US Air Force. Proctor has experience as an “analog astronaut” participating in simulated space missions on Earth. She will have the chance to put “real astronaut” on her resume.
The crew will conduct health research experiments during the flight, but the mission will also raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which specializes in treating childhood cancer. The spacecraft’s payload includes mission jackets, a ukulele, NFTs from a variety of artists, plush toys and other items that’ll be auctioned off as a fundraiser. The Samuel Adams brewery has committed up to $100,000 to St. Jude in exchange for 66 pounds of space-flown hops to make a special beer.
Why Inspiration4 matters
Space has typically been the domain of professional astronauts. Some space tourists have paid high prices to get to orbit, but that sort of tourism is still a rarity. Inspiration4 hints at the possibilities for the future of the industry. It also demonstrates how far spacecraft technology has come. The highly automated Crew Dragon provides a lot of safeguards for its civilian entourage. They’ve trained extensively for the mission, but it will be a testament to what the technology is capable of.
Inspiration4 has some strong sentiments on why the mission is important: “Inspiration4, the first commercial mission to space, may mark the beginning of the next Age of Exploration.” That’s a lofty concept, but it’s not crazy. We’re living at time when SpaecX founder Elon Musk is talking about sending a million people to Mars by 2050. Inspiration4 suggests space could soon be in reach for more people than ever before.
Inspiration4 on Netflix
This may be one of the most well-documented crewed space missions ever. Netflix is running the Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space docuseries following the crew from launch to landing. Three episodes are already available on the streaming service, with more to come. Netflix is also expected to stream the event live on its YouTube page.
Since Inspiration4 won’t be docking with the ISS, SpaceX has instead kitted out the nose of the Crew Dragon with a large, bowl-shaped window that should provide spectacular views of Earth. But first they’ll need to get to orbit with a lift from a very powerful rocket.
From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.
The world’s first crew of “amateur astronauts” is preparing to blast off on a mission that will carry them into orbit before bringing them back down to Earth at the weekend.
The four civilians, who have spent the past few months on an astronaut training course, are due to launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8.02pm local time on Wednesday (1.02am UK time on Thursday).
Barring any glitches, the two men and two women on the Inspiration4 mission are expected to orbit the planet for three or four days, performing experiments and admiring the view through a glass dome fitted to their Dragon capsule, before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Touted as “the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit”, the launch is the latest to promote the virtues of space tourism and follows suborbital flights in July by Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo – which has since been grounded for going off course – and Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
While the Inspiration4 crew has had flying lessons, centrifuge sessions to experience the G-forces of launch, and hours of training in SpaceX’s capsule simulator, the mission will be almost entirely automated. The capsule is due to orbit Earth at an altitude of 360 miles (575km), about 93 miles higher than the International Space Station.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced in February that the billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, who has clocked up thousands of hours in various aircraft, had chartered the Falcon 9 rocket for himself and three members of the public. He donated two seats to St Jude children’s research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and selected Hayley Arceneaux, a former cancer patient at the hospital, and now an employee there, to join him. At 29 years old, Arceneaux is set to become the youngest American in orbit.
Also on the mission are Dr Sian Proctor, a geologist and science communicator who made it to the final round of Nasa’s 2009 astronaut selection process, and Chris Sembroski, a US air force veteran and aerospace engineer with Lockheed Martin, who was offered the seat by a friend who won it in a St Jude’s charity raffle.
While the Inspiration4 mission is yet another paid for by a billionaire, it marks a milestone in space tourism: never before has an all-amateur crew been blasted into orbit. “It’ll be the first time that a global superpower hasn’t sent people up into orbital space,” Isaacman has said. “When this mission is complete, people are going to look at it and say, ‘It was the first time everyday people could go to space.’”
Louis Brennan, professor in business studies at Trinity Business School in Dublin, said SpaceX was “leading the pack” of private sector companies interested in space. He likened space tourism today to the time before low cost airlines created a mass market for air travel. “In the same way, space tourism is likely to remain the preserve of the wealthier classes in the short to medium term, as the cost is prohibitive for people of average means,” he said. “In the longer term, as the costs involve reduce, it is likely to become a mass market activity. However for now and into the short and medium term it will be a niche market.”
As the industry moves beyond national space agency contracts to tourism, it will be more crucial than ever to avoid mishaps and disasters. “Safety in space tourism is paramount since any accident involving death or injury runs the real risk of fatally undermining confidence on the part of prospective space tourism customers,” Brennan said.
Four private citizens are set to launch into orbit Wednesday in what will be the first mission to space without any professional astronauts on board.
The all-civilian crew will ride to space aboard a rocket and capsule developed by SpaceX. The mission, dubbed Inspiration4, is just the latest milestone flight in what has been a busy year for private spaceflight companies, following joyrides to suborbital space by billionaire entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos over the summer.
Another billionaire, Jared Isaacman, is set to lead the historic all-civilian mission. Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a Pennsylvania-based payment processing company, paid an unspecified amount for the three-day expedition in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
The spacecraft is scheduled to launch Wednesday atop a reusable Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The five-hour launch window opens at 8:02 p.m. EDT, and SpaceX is planning to broadcast the event live. Forecasts currently project a 70 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for the evening launch.
Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux make up the SpaceX Inspiration4 crew.John Kraus / Inspiration4
The Crew Dragon capsule will spend three days circling Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida, according to SpaceX.
“From the start of this mission, I’ve been very aware of how fortunate we are to be part of this history SpaceX is creating right now,” Isaacman said Tuesday in a preflight briefing, adding that the orbital outing is designed to inspire people.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that while early space tourism flights may be out of reach for all but very wealthy people, these pioneering missions will lay the groundwork for more regular and more affordable trips to space in the future.
If successful, the Inspiration4 expedition will represent a major leap for space tourism. It will also be a boon for SpaceX, which has dominated the private spaceflight industry, including over rivals such as Bezos and his aerospace company Blue Origin.
Joining Isaacman on the journey will be 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, a bone cancer survivor who now works as a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Arceneaux, who will act as the crew’s chief medical officer, will become the youngest American to fly in space.
Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer, and 51-year-old Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and licensed pilot, will round out the crew.
The expedition is part of a charity initiative to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In addition to giving $100 million to St. Jude, Isaacman donated the three other seats on the Inspiration4 flight to his crew members.
Procter, a former NASA astronaut candidate, won her ticket to space through an online contest conducted by Shift4 Payments. Sembroski won his seat in a charity drive to raise money for St. Jude.
Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux make up the SpaceX Inspiration4 crew.John Kraus / Inspiration4
The Inspiration4 mission will resemble SpaceX’s routine flights to the International Space Station, except this time, the capsule will not dock at the orbiting lab. Instead, the spacecraft will circle the planet 15 times each day from an altitude of nearly 360 miles, higher than the current orbits of the space station and the Hubble Space Telescope, according to SpaceX.
Though the flight is an important milestone for the space tourism industry, the Inspiration4 crew members will not just be along for the ride. During their three-day expedition, Isaacman, Proctor, Sembroski and Arceneaux will perform a series of medical experiments that could inform future spaceflights and have applications for human health closer to home.
The crew members have been undergoing intense spaceflight training since March, including in simulators and on zero-G flights that offer short periods of microgravity.
In a preflight briefing, Proctor spoke about her excitement and anticipation ahead of the launch.
“Since the announcement when we were here last, every day has been the best day of my life,” Proctor said, speaking from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “Every day, it just gets better and better.”
Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept 14 (Reuters) – The four would-be citizen astronauts poised to ride a SpaceX rocket ship around the globe as the first all-civilian crew launched into orbit said on Tuesday they were eager for liftoff on the eve of their flight, feeling only “the good kind” of jitters.
“I was just worried that this moment would never come in my life. Let’s get going, let’s do it,” said Sian Proctor, 51, a geoscience professor, artist and lifelong space enthusiast who was a 2009 finalist in NASA’s astronaut candidate program before she was cut.
Proctor also disclosed she and her flightmates received a telephone call from one of her personal heroes, former first lady Michelle Obama, wishing them well, an honor she said “would stay with me the rest of my life.”
The “Inspiration4” quartet are due for liftoff as early as 8 p.m. on Wednesday (0000 GMT) from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, for an orbital flight expected to last about three days before splashdown.
Proctor and her crewmates – billionaire e-commerce executive and jet pilot Jared Isaacman, 38, physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroski, 42 – took reporters’ questions at a pre-launch briefing inside a SpaceX hangar a little more than 24 hours before launch time.
Behind them, visible in the distance through the hangar’s open doors, stood the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule designed to carry them to a targeted orbital altitude of 360 miles (575 km) over the Earth – higher than the International Space Station.
The Inspiration4 crew of Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux poses while suited up for a launch rehearsal in Cape Canaveral, Florida September 12, 2021. Picture taken September 12, 2021. Inspiration4/John Kraus/Handout via REUTERS
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That is far beyond the inaugural astro-tourism flights made this summer by SpaceX rivals Virgin Galactic (SPCE.N) and Blue Origin, which carried their respective billionaire founders – Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos – along for the ride.
Those two suborbital trips, while high enough for their crews to experience a few moments of microgravity, were over in a matter of minutes.
The high-orbital flight planned for Inspiration4 carries greater risks, including more exposure to radiation in space. But the crew members professed the utmost confidence in SpaceX, the private California-based rocket company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Isaacman, founder and chief executive of electronic financial services company Shift4 Payments Inc (FOUR.N), is the mission’s originator and benefactor, having paid Musk an undisclosed but presumably enormous sum to fly all four crew members into orbit.
Musk joined in on a pre-flight “check-in” call on Tuesday, “and did give us his assurances that the entire leadership is solely focused on this mission,” Isaacman told reporters when asked about pre-launch nerves. “No jitters, just excited to get going.”
Arceneaux, a childhood bone cancer survivor who now works with young lymphoma and leukemia patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Center in Memphis, Tennessee, which the Inspiration4 mission was designed largely to promote, said she was “just so excited.”
“Any jitters are the good kind,” she added. “I’m just waiting for tomorrow to get here.”
Joining Tuesday’s event was at least one retired NASA astronaut, Catherine “Cady” Coleman, 60, a veteran of two space shuttle missions who spoke up to wish the Inspiration4 crew well, telling them: “We want to welcome you to the family.”
Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in Cape Canaveral, Fla.; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney
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