Image credit: @johnkrausphotos
SpaceX made history tonight, as it sent the first all-civilian crew into orbit aboard its Dragon capsule.
The Inspiration4 mission was sent into space by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center’s 39A launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Check out the liftoff below:
Liftoff of @Inspiration4X! Go Falcon 9! Go Dragon! pic.twitter.com/NhRXkD4IWg
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
Here, we have stage separation between the first stage Falcon 9 and the second stage attached to Dragon:
Main engine cutoff and stage separation confirmed. Second stage engine burn underway pic.twitter.com/ihYA8ELUVA
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
Here is Dragon separating from the Falcon 9 second stage:
Dragon has separated from Falcon 9’s second stage pic.twitter.com/pOfgJ9LsvE
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
Dragon reached space and the capsule began to conduct two phasing burns to reach its cruising orbit, set for 575km, where the crew will then orbit Earth for the next three days.
But after the second phasing burn was complete, SpaceX announced Dragon had reached a circular orbit of 585km, a new record altitude for the capsule.
According to SpaceX, the original altitude of 575km would be “flying farther than any other human spaceflight since the Hubble missions.”
The Hubble Telescope orbits at 540km, while the International Space Station orbits the Earth at 420km.
The Inspiration4 crew includes Commander and billionaire Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Medical Officer, St. Jude Physician Assistant and pediatric cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, Mission Specialist, Air Force Veteran and Aerospace Data Engineer Chris Sembroski, and Mission Pilot and geoscientist, Dr. Sian Proctor.
Dragon has a new cupola observation dome installed, the largest contiguous space window ever flown, according to SpaceX. The new cupola was “designed, tested, and qualified for flight in six months”, as it replaced the previous autonomous dock mechanism to attach to the International Space Station.
“The three-layer observation dome was put through an extensive qualification process, including thermal, vibration, structural environments, and life-cycle to verify capability,” detailed SpaceX.
The Inspiration4 mission will attempt to raise $200 million USD for St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital while conducting health experiments in space aboard Dragon. You can watch a documentary of the Inspiration4 mission on Netflix.
The Inspiration4 crew will orbit the Earth roughly every 90 minutes. In three days, it will splash down on the coast of Florida, making history as the first-ever all-civilian space flight. This is just the beginning, folks.
Check out the full video replay below:
