Shortly after 2 am Italian time, 8 pm local time, as expected, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying, for the first time, a crew of only four civilians without any professional astronauts. The rocket took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a three-day mission in Earth orbit at a height of 575 kilometers, well beyond the International Space Station, which is 408 kilometers above Earth’s surface.
A huge ball of fire lit up the sky as the rocket’s nine engines began moving away from Earth. Twelve minutes later, the Crew Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 rocket that had taken it into orbit. Everything went smoothly, amidst the cheers of the control station as each step was completed. The first stump of the rocket broke off and began its descent, landing on a platform positioned in the Atlantic on a marine drone named “Just read the instruction”.
Space, Bezos offers NASA a 2 billion discount to take astronauts to the moon
The Inspiration4 mission, the first ever test of a flight without professionals that suggests a future of access to space for all (those who can afford it), sees in the role of commander the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who created the mission just 10 months ago to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. With him on board are aerospace engineer Chris Sembroski (chosen among the donors of the fundraiser), popularizer Sian Proctor, the first black woman to fill the role of pilot, and 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, a cancer survivor and carrier. of prostheses. Arceneaux, in the last press conference before the launch, said she was enthusiastic about the scientific studies that the four will conduct aboard the Crew Dragon to understand how the human body reacts to space travel. She is the first wearer of prostheses in space.
