HISTORIC: SpaceX launches first private flight with four amateurs on Earth-circling trip

First time in history of space tourism, Elon Musk's American Aerospace Company, SpaceX, launched  Inspiration4 mission on Wednesday, September 16, with four civilian crew and no professional astronauts.  Falcon 9 rocket took off from Kennedy Space Center p which was used by company’s three previous astronaut flights for NASA. This time  Dragon capsule aimed to travel to an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers), just beyond Hubble Space Telescope. 

Four amateur travellers

flight is le by 38-year-old Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of payment processor Shift4 Payments Inc. He is third billionaire to launch this summer, followed by  brief space-skimming flights by Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos in July.

Hayley Arceneaux, 29 is a childhood cancer survivor who works as a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee where she was treated earlier. Arceneaux is first person in space with a prossis, a titanium rod in her left leg. Also, she will become youngest American in space. 

Issac chose rest of crew himself through a competition where Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona filled spots.

Dragon capsule flies higher than usual 

Isaacman with pilot training persued SpaceX to take Dragon capsule higher than it’s ever been. For first time, this was approved by SpaceX after a safety review. Previously it was not agreed considering increased riation exposure and or risks. 

On eve of flight, Isaacman told reporters, “Now I just wish we pushed m to go higher. If we’re going to go to moon again and we’re going to go to Mars and beyond, n we’ve got to get a little outside of our comfort zone and take next step in that direction".

While Explorers Club President Richard Garriott, a NASA astronaut’s son who paid Russians for a space station trip more than a dece ago, said, “Yes, today you must have and be willing to part with a large amount of cash to buy yourself a trip to space. But this is only way we can get price down and expand access, just as it has been with or industries before it". 

Next trip of SpaceX

Early next year, SpaceX is planning its next private trip where a retired NASA astronaut will escort three wealthy businessmen to space station for a weeklong visit. While Russians will launch an actress, film director, and a Japanese tycoon to space station in next few months.

NASA initially opposed concept of space tourism but now acts as a supporter. former NASA ministrator Charles Bolden informed that shift from government astronauts to non-professionals “is just flabbergasting". 

While Cornell University’s Mason Peck, an engineering professor who served as NASA’s chief technologist nearly a dece ago, said, “Someday NASA astronauts will be exception, not rule. But y’ll likely continue to be trailblazers rest of us will follow". 

(With AP inputs) (Image credit: TWITTER)