SpaceX has launched the first all-civilian crew into orbit. The first all-citizen crew to orbit the planet blasted off inspace from Florida on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket ship. Featuring a billionaire e-commerce executive and three other individuals. Just before sunset, the amateur astronauts, led by Jared Isaacman, the founding CEO and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments, along with Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux, and Chris Sembroski, launched from Cape Canaveral.
Quite a few thumbs up were seen as SpaceX launched the capsule atop its reusable two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. It was almost 10 minutes after 8:03 p.m. that the Crew Dragon, carrying an observation dome instead of its standard docking hatch, entered orbit.
The rocket’s first-stage booster, which separated from the spacecraft’s top half, landed safely on a floating platform in the Atlantic called Just Read the Instructions. SpaceX says the capsule reached an orbital altitude of just over 363 miles (585 km) within three hours – higher than the International Space Station or Hubble Space Telescope – the furthest humans have flown from Earth since NASA’s Apollo lunar program ended in 1972.
This was also the first launch of SpaceX founder Elon Musk‘s orbital tourism company, and a big leap forward from competitors who charge customers a small fortune for rocket rides. Isaacman paid billionaire Musk an undisclosed amount to send himself and his three crewmates into space. Times magazine estimates the ticket price to be $200 million.
In preparation for the mission, the four crewmates have completed rigorous training, including altitude fitness, centrifuge (G-force), microgravity and simulator training, emergency drills, classroom work, and medical exams over the past five months. The crew is expected to conduct a series of medical experiments on orbit to test “potential applications for human health on Earth and on future voyages in space,” the group said. Biological samples and biomedical data, including ultrasound studies, are also collected before, during, and after flights. The four crewmates had specific tasks to conduct.
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