SpaceX successfully launched the "all civilians" space "tour group" for the first time

Original title: SpaceX successfully launched the "all civilians" space "tour group" for the first time
Four ordinary people began space flight
SpaceX successfully launched the "all civilians" space "tour group" for the first time
Science and technology daily, Beijing, September 16 (intern reporter Zhang Jiaxin) American space exploration technology company (SpaceX) has made history again. According to foreign media reports, at 8:02 Beijing time on September 16, the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrier rocket lifted off from the Cape Canaveral space launch site in Florida, putting four ordinary passengers into orbit. This mission is called "inspiration 4", which is the first space mission composed of national crew and the first commercial manned mission of SpaceX.
This is not the first time a private passenger has paid for a space flight, but inspiration 4 is the first space trip to orbit without a professional astronaut. The four crew members are Jared Isaacman, 38, founder and CEO of American digital payment company shift4 payments, 51, earth scientist Sean Proctor, 42, aerospace Data Engineer Chris sambroski and 29, doctor assistant Haley arseno. They will fly in the "dragon" spacecraft in orbit around the earth for three days, and then re-enter the atmosphere and return to the ground.
The spacecraft is designed to fly completely autonomously, so ideally, the crew will not actually conduct any driving, and the SpaceX staff on the ground will control the capsule and undertake the task of operation and driving.
Although the capsule is automated, in response to any emergency, the four crew members spent six months on flight training, including centrifuge and fighter flight, launch and re-entry training in the SpaceX capsule simulator, and hard trek to Mount Rainier in Washington in the snow.
The Dragon spacecraft takes 90 minutes to fly around the earth at a speed of more than 27000 kilometers per hour, which is about 22 times the speed of sound. At the same time, the "dragon" spacecraft will also fly to the target altitude of 575 kilometers above the earth and will not be close to the international space station, but this altitude is nearly 160 kilometers higher than the international space station and even higher than the orbital altitude of the Hubble Space Telescope.
During this flight, the spacecraft was upgraded. It has a large dome window called cupola. Through this window, the crew will enjoy the amazing scenery of the earth while orbiting the earth. They can experience about 15 sunrise and sunset every day.
"I'm really excited to see the earth from space. It's going to be incredible," Haley aseno said at a pre launch press conference on September 1
Foreign media said that to some extent, the "inspiration 4" mission is one of the crew members and billionaire Jared Isaacman trying to turn the crew's personal space adventure into an activity to raise funds for the St. Jude Children's research hospital in the United States. At the same time, the first non-governmental, "national" orbital flight will open the way for a wider space journey - pilots can be not only trained professional astronauts, but also ordinary people.
In addition, the successful launch of "inspiration 4" will also be regarded as a big step towards Elon Musk's vision of establishing a human beachhead on other planets.