Four ordinary people started a space flight
SpaceX's first "all civilian" space "tour group" successfully lifted off
Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, September 16 (Intern reporter Zhang Jiaxin) The US Space Exploration Technology Corporation (SpaceX) once again made history.
According to foreign media reports, at 8:02 on September 16, Beijing time, the SpaceX "Falcon 9" carrier rocket lifted off from the Cape Canaveral space launch site in Florida, USA, sending four ordinary passengers into orbit.
This mission is called "Inspiration 4". This is the first space mission composed of a civilian crew and SpaceX's first commercial manned mission.
This is not the first time a private passenger has paid to fly in space, but the "Inspiration 4" mission is the first time a space trip into orbit without professional astronauts.
The 4 crew members are Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a 38-year-old American digital payment company, Sean Proctor, a 51-year-old geoscientist, and a 42-year-old aerospace data engineer. Chris Sambrosky and 29-year-old medical assistant Hayley Arsenal.
They will fly in an orbit around the earth on a "dragon" spacecraft for 3 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 carry out any driving. SpaceX crews on the ground will control the space capsule and assume the task of operating and driving.
Although the capsule is automated, in response to any emergency, the four crew members spent 6 months in flight training, including centrifuge and fighter flights, launching in the SpaceX capsule simulator, and re-entry into the atmosphere. Training, and trekking in the snow to Mount Rainier, Washington.
The "Dragon" spacecraft travels around the earth for 90 minutes at a speed of more than 27,000 kilometers per hour, which is about 22 times the speed of sound.
At the same time, the "Dragon" spacecraft will also fly to a 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 height of the Hubble Space Telescope.
During this flight, the spacecraft was upgraded. It had a large domed window called a cupola.
Through this window, the crew will enjoy the breathtaking scenery of the earth while orbiting the earth, and experience approximately 15 sunrises and sunsets a day.
On September 1, Hayley Arsenal said at a press conference before the launch: "I am really excited to see the Earth from space. It will be very unbelievable."
Foreign media said that to some extent, the "Inspiration 4" mission was one of the crew members and billionaire Jared Isaacman trying to turn the crew’s personal space adventure into the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States. Activities to raise funds.
At the same time, the first non-governmental, "national" orbital flight will open the way for a wider space journey-pilots are not only well-trained professional astronauts, but also ordinary people.
In addition, the smooth launch of "Inspiration 4" will also be regarded as a big step towards Elon Musk's vision of establishing human beachheads on other planets.