Inspiration4 trip goes to plan
SpaceX sent up its first private passengers using a Dragon spacecraft last week, with a launch Wednesday night from Florida. The four-person ‘Inspiration4’ crew was selected based on criteria set by mission patron and sponsor Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who entered the mission around a fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
The four spent three days on orbit, slightly higher above the Earth than the International Space Station’s own orbiting path. During that time, they made a bunch of video calls, ran some experiments, and spent some time reproing their Netflix show and taking in the views with the Dragon’s newly affixed cupola transparent dome.
This whole thing felt weirdly a little less impressive than it actually should’ve been on paper, and also didn’t really seem to draw as much attention as I would’ve expected. Maybe people are a little too exhausted from the pandemic to muster much enthusiasm for billionaires paying for space rides for them and some friends.
Regardless, it’s a big achievement not only for SpaceX, but also for NASA, since this is exactly what the agency was hoping to achieve with their commercial crew program: Private development of a human-rated spacecraft they could use, but that would also be paid for in part by private bookings.
The foursome made it back to Earth safely with a Dragon capsule splashdown on Sunday, too, so consider that one a complete success in the history books.
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