– The historic Elon Musk rocket mission will orbit the Earth for 3 days
– The four on board were selected through a competition among 72,000 fans
Elon Musk hit the ground Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, launching into space for the first time a fully civilian crew of 4 tourists.
However, unlike his fellow billionaires, the owner of the American company “Space X” does not participate in the mission, according to the “Daily Mail”.
Its Falcon 9 launch vehicle took off at 8.02pm local time on Wednesday from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida with four civilians on board – two men and two women, who will remain in orbit for three days, Reuters reported.
For the first time, space tourists will not be guided by a professional astronaut.
The historic launch is part of the Inspiration 4 program.
The crew is led by 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of e-commerce company Shift4 Payments. He is supposed to be
paid huge
amount of Musk,
to fly
with the Dragon manned capsule together with the accompanying passengers. Isaacman is an avid pilot and even qualifies for military aircraft. He set a record for a jet flight around the world. He will be the “commander” of the mission, but the position is only honorary.
The role of “pilot” is Shan Procter, a professor of geosciences. In 2009, she applied to be an astronaut at NASA. The colored geologist is also a licensed pilot.
The crew has a medical person – 29-year-old Hailey Arsenau. She was chosen because she works as a nurse at St. Jude Pediatric Hospital in Memphis, for which Isaacman raises funds.
She survived after
bone cancer
She treats patients with tumors and says she wants to give them hope with the mission. “I’m going to show them what life can look like after cancer,” Haley said.
The fourth is 42-year-old Chris Sembroski, a veteran of the Air Force. The former military pilot works in the aviation industry.
Musk’s Space X is another company that is embarking on space tourism. The Falcon 9 missiles, with which he fires the meraklii, are used repeatedly.
The civilian mission Inspiration 4 was conceived by Jared Isaacman to draw attention and funding to one of his favorite causes – St. Jude Children’s Hospital, which is a leader in research on childhood cancer. He has donated $ 100 million to her so far.
“We have a historic journey ahead of us. I hope this mission shows
how far
may
took us
inspiration
and to what achievements here on Earth “, the billionaire wrote on Twitter.
The success of the mission will be the beginning of a new era in space tourism – a sector in which several companies compete.
Elon Musk’s company is the most established among them. It transports cargo and astronauts to NASA’s International Space Station.
Its rivals, Galactic Galaxy and Blue Origin, recently debuted with missions involving their founders, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. However, their flights were not launched into orbit, were suborbital and lasted several minutes.
SpaceX has launched space tourists into orbit for the first time at an altitude of 575 km, beyond the orbits of the ISS and the Hubble Space Telescope.
orbit the Earth
to everybody
90 minutes with
speed over
27,000 km / h
Despite the positions, the crew will not have a role in piloting the spacecraft.
Participants are selected through an online competition organized by Shift4 Payments. 72,000 people applied.
The four participants are seriously preparing for the five-month mission. In orbit, they will perform medical experiments. They are expected to land in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.
– .
