Four people, among whom there were no professional astronauts, went into outer space in a SpaceX capsule.
The capsule went into orbit on Wednesday night, and it marked the beginning of the first space mission in history, consisting exclusively of tourists, according to CNN.
Liftoff of @Inspiration4X! Go Falcon 9! Go Dragon! pic.twitter.com/NhRXkD4IWg
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
The team on board consists of four people: billionaire Jared Isaacman, 29-year-old Hailey Arsena, who is battling cancer, Chris Sembroski, a veteran of the US Air Force (who got a place in the capsule thanks to an online tote), and engineer and geologist Sian Procter.
For the next three days, passengers will enjoy the view of the Earth, which the capsule orbits in 90 minutes at a speed of more than 17,500 miles per hour.
The capsule has enough provisions for the week, although its return to earth is scheduled for Saturday. Depending on the weather or other circumstances, its stay in space can be extended or shortened.
The four lucky ones will be able to admire the unique scenery, but they will also have to use one toilet and they will not be able to take a shower. They will sleep in the chairs they sit on.
View from Dragon’s cupola pic.twitter.com/Z2qwKZR2lK
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
SpaceX hopes that this will be the first of many such travel missions, when space travel will become as commonplace as flying an airplane. And the Crew Dragon capsule is SpaceX’s first step toward that – despite the fact that it was designed and built under contract to NASA and designed to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and back, SpaceX still owns and operates this spacecraft and has the right to sell places or entire missions to anyone.
SpaceX and its space tourism clients can develop an entire flight plan, from the choice of flight path and preparation process to the choice of products that passengers will eat during the flight.
However, this is not the first case of civilians traveling into space. Although after the death of Christie McAuliff, a New Hampshire teacher who died in 1986 in the Challenger crash, NASA was reluctant to sign astronauts to participate in regular flights, in the 2000s a group of wealthy thrill seekers paid for their flight to the International Space Station. through Space Adventures. American billionaire Dennis Tito became the first to self-finance a trip in 2001 and spent eight days on the International Space Station, followed by six others. All of them flew together with professional astronauts on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
However, today’s mission is seen as the beginning of a new era of space travel, in which ordinary people, rather than government-selected astronauts and casual adventurers with big pockets, will be able to see Earth from space.