SpaceX plans to launch its first space tourism mission for the fourth quarter of 2021, announced in a statement on Monday 1is February the American aerospace company of the whimsical billionaire Elon Musk.
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The mission, named “Inspiration4”, will be carried out using SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will have on board Jared Isaacman, founder and boss of Shift4 Payments, the group’s first space tourist.
Jared Isaacman will donate the three seats by his side aboard the Dragon capsule, at “Individuals from the general public, whose identity will be announced in the coming weeks”, specifies the press release.
“Astronaut training” for future tourists
A website has been created at the address Inspiration4.com, so that people can apply for one of these places. Two categories of seats are possible: the seat of the ” generosity “ can be obtained with a donation to the St Jude Foundation, which works on childhood illnesses, while the headquarters of the “Prosperity” can be obtained by sharing his entrepreneurial story. The competition is open to residents of the United States over the age of 18.
The four individuals, with Jared Isaacman, “Will receive commercial astronaut training from SpaceX”. According to the company, the mission will last for several days, and space tourists will orbit the Earth every 90 minutes. After the mission, the capsule will enter the atmosphere for a water landing off the coast of Florida.
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In November 2020, four astronauts were successfully put into orbit by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, before joining the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule had become a week earlier the first spacecraft to be certified by NASA from the space shuttle, forty years earlier.
Two more launches for NASA in 2021
NASA turned to SpaceX and Boeing after ending its space shuttle program in 2011; program that had failed to achieve its goal of making space travel safe and inexpensive.
U.S. agency plans to spend more than $ 8 billion by 2024 on its commercial crew program, with hopes that the private sector will meet the needs “Low orbitals” from NASA so that the latter can concentrate on return missions to the Moon, then to Mars.
In addition to its first space tourism mission, SpaceX has planned two other manned launches for NASA in 2021, including one in the spring with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet on board.
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