Last year, SpaceX has enabled America’s ability to fly NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station for the first time since the Space Shuttle program was shuttered in 2011. Today, Elon Musk’s ambitious space transportation services company announced the first all-civilian mission to orbit Earth onboard Dragon.
SpaceX is aiming for Falcon 9’s launch of Inspiration4 – the world’s first all-commercial astronaut mission to orbit. The first mission, which is expected to happen “no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year,” will be launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission will be lead by Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shjift4 Payments. Now, here’s the interesting part. Jared is donating the three mission seats alongside him aboard Dragon and he is inviting members of the public to join him.
Jared’s crew members from the general public will be selected to represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity. You can learn more on how to have shot in joining this historic journey to space HERE.
As expected of a space mission, the usual crew preparation will follow:
“The Inspiration4 crew will receive commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. They will go through emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations.”
The multi-day journey will see the Dragon orbiting Earth every 90 minutes along a customized flight path. While it is an all-civilian mission, the entire process will be monitored by Space X mission control every step of the way. When the mission is completed, Dragon will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and perform a soft water landing off the coast of Florida.
Images: SpaceX.
