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After three days in orbit, a physician assistant, a community college professor, a data engineer, and the billionaire who financed their travels have returned to Earth, heralding a new era of space travel, with a dramatic and successful Saturday evening landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The mission, known as Inspiration4, splashed onto the Florida coast at 7:06 p.m. Saturday. Each step of the return unfolded according to schedule, without any problems.
“Welcome to planet Earth,” SpaceX director of space operations Kris Young said to the crew as the capsule swung in the water. SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk, built the Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Inspiration4 mission, as well as the Crew Dragon capsule, where astronauts spent the last three days.
“Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us and that ordinary people can have extraordinary effects in the world around them,” said Mr. Young.
“It’s been a great journey for us,” replied 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, who pioneered Inspiration4. “We just have begun.”
About an hour ago, the Resilience capsule fired its thrusters for 15 minutes to exit orbit. The parachutes opened and slowed the Resistance to about 15 miles per hour when it hit the water. Within an hour, four crew members emerged from the spacecraft, one at a time, and each glowed with excitement as the rescuers assisted them.
This was the latest achievement in one-year spaceflight milestones.
A few months ago, two famous billionaires — Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and Richard Branson, leader of the Virgin corporate empire – they went to the edge of space in vehicles built and operated by the companies they started, perhaps the start of a wealthy wave of space tourists making short excursions up and down the planet.
Not as well known as Mr. Bezos and Mr. Branson, Mr. Isaacman has now gone much further – reaching an altitude and orbital velocity of 366 miles from the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. over 17,000 miles per hour.
The first private spaceflight to orbit without a professional astronaut also aimed to show what a more accessible future in space might look like. The three crewmates started out as aliens chosen to embody the positive traits of humanity: hope, prosperity, and generosity.
When they set out, the four astronauts were a close-knit group: high school dropout Mr. Isaacman, who founded Shift4 Payments, a company that processes payments for restaurants and other businesses; Hayley Arceneaux, 29, was born in St. Physician assistant at Jude Children’s Research Center; Sian Proctor, 51, a community college professor in Phoenix, the first Black woman to pilot a space mission; and Christopher Sembroski, 42, a data engineer based in western Washington.
For a brief moment, there was a record of 14 people in orbit at the same time: four Inspiration4 crew members, three Chinese astronauts aboard the country’s new space station, and an international crew of seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
On Friday, the Chinese astronauts returned to Earth. With the return of Inspiration4, the human population outside of Earth has dwindled to seven people aboard the International Space Station.
The Inspiration4 mission was the final victory for Mr. Musk. The Crew Dragon is the same spacecraft used to take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Now, there may be a new market for orbit-specific travel. “There’s a ton of interest,” said Benji Reed, senior director of manned spaceflight at SpaceX, in a phone press conference after the jump, about flights aboard Crew Dragon. “And now it’s growing, a lot.”
Orbital spaceflight is still too expensive for everyone but the wealthiest of the rich, but by giving people a chance to represent wider society, Mr Isaacman said he hopes to inspire future generations to dream bigger.
Crew members underwent months of intense training similar to what NASA astronauts must learn before launching SpaceX rockets.
Four astronauts appeared Time magazine cover. Netflix made a documentary A final episode about the series and flights following their training will be published at the end of the month.
Wednesday evening departure was on time and flawless. After several propellant burns, the capsule was in orbit 366 miles above Earth, the tallest astronauts since the mission to fix the Hubble have gone.
Then, at least for the general public, the post went silent for a day with only a few bare-bones updates posted on Twitter. As a private mission not conducted by NASA, the crew had no obligation to appear in public.
Twitter and Instagram accounts, which have been heavily updated in the past weeks as we prepare for launch, have remained silent while orbiting.
Crew, St. He made video calls with patients at Jude’s. One of the children asked if there were cows on the moon. “I hope one day it will,” replied Dr. proctor.
Inspiration4 has raised more than $160 million, including $100 million from Mr.
late saturdayMusk of SpaceX said on Twitter he will add a $50 million contribution, which will push the fundraising effort above the $200 million target.
Crew members also met with the player Tom Cruise. An online betting app also announced that Mr. Isaacman had placed the first bets from space.
On Friday afternoon, team members rang the closing bell they had brought into orbit for the New York Stock Exchange, and then 10 minute live update on YouTube while zooming around the planet.
“We see the Earth every 90 minutes, we’re traveling this fast, it’s pretty incredible,” Mr. Isaacman said during the broadcast from orbit.
Inspiration4 mission director Todd Ericson had a little sickness to adapt to space, but it was “almost the same” as that experienced by professional astronauts. “This shows that the average men and women are not more or less prone to space adaptation syndrome than NASA astronauts,” Ericson said, “I think they will be. some surprising science this mission brings”
Other entertainment projects in the works include the aptly named “Who Wants To Be An Astronaut?” which will air on the Discovery Channel. It features a reality TV show titled. The winner is to launch a SpaceX rocket to the space station.
After this mission, the Crew Dragon capsule used by Inspiration4 will be refurbished and used for another special mission starting early next year. This mission, run by Houston-based company Axiom Space, is to take a professional astronaut and three clients, each paying $55 million, to visit the space station.
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