SpaceX’s first flight has launched from Earth with a crew of four, including the two who previously won the contest to join this mission.
It was the first time in history that a spacecraft carried a crew of civilians, who were not professional astronauts.
The two men and two women in the Dragon capsule will spend three days circling the globe from high orbit, 160 kilometers further from the International Space Station, then returning off the coast in Florida next weekend.
The mission is also the first attempt by SpaceX founder Elon Musk to launch space tourism.
Who’s on the plane?
The leader in this flight mission is 38 -year -old Jared Isaacman.
He became the third billionaire to be launched into space, following the brief flight into space that Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos made with Blue Origin in July.
Joining Jarod is Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old cancer survivor who also works as a medical assistant in Tennessee, United States.
The other crew members were Chris Sembroski, 42, a ‘data engineer’ and Sian Proctor, 51, a lecturer from Arizona.
Hayley will become the youngest American to ever go into space and the first person in space to have a limb implanted, a titanium rod in her left leg.
Received six months of training
Even though this capsule called the ‘Dragon’ is controlled automatically, the four crew members have gone through six months of training to know what to do in the event of an emergency.
The training included centrifugal and fighter jet flights, launch and return exercises via SpaceX’s capsule simulator, and a hike in the snowy mountains of Mount Rainier in Washington.
Four hours before liftoff, the four emerged from the hangar where SpaceX was located.
They waved to the family, before later wearing special clothes.
A moment later they were at the launch pad and taking pictures, before finally boarding the plane.
NASA supports space tourism
Unlike other NASA missions, what happens on their journey will not be recorded in ‘real time’ for the public.
Hayley hopes she can communicate with her patients, even though the conversation won’t be broadcast live.
SpaceX’s next launch into space is planned for early next year.
During the launch, a retired NASA astronaut will escort three wealthy businessmen to the space station for a week.
Meanwhile, Russia will launch a space mission with a crew of a Japanese actress, film director and billionaire to the space station in the next few months.
NASA, which used to be against space tourism, now supports it.
The change of the astronaut crew to non-professionals was “very surprising,” said Charles Bolden, a former employee at NASA who also served as a shuttle commander.
“One day, NASA astronauts will be the exception, not the rule,” said Mason Peck of Cornell University, an engineering professor who served as NASA’s chief technology officer nearly a decade ago.
“But they will likely continue to be the trailblazers all of us will follow.”
AP
This article was produced by Erwin Renaldi
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