The four U.S. space tourists spent their first day in orbit in the SpaceX spacecraft, conducting scientific research and speaking to patients at a children's cancer hospital, after taking off from Cape Canaveral the day before.

The children of St Jude's Hospital were able to speak to the Inspiration4 mission crew, "asking them the question everyone is asking: 'Are there cows on the moon?'" Tweeted the hospital.

Inspiration4 is the first space mission entirely made up of private citizens on board.

The crew "circled the Earth 5.5 times, carried out the first series of scientific research and had a few meals" before going to bed, the company founded by Elon Musk said on Twitter. The latter indicated on his Twitter account that he had spoken with the crew and that "everything is fine". They will now join the cupola of the Dragon capsule, a huge glass dome installed to offer passengers a 360-degree view of the vacuum of space and which replaces the system normally intended to dock with the ISS.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman, medical assistant Hayley Arceneaux, aeronautical engineer Chris Sembroski and science teacher Sian Proctor orbit 590 kilometers above sea level.

All are space novices.

The mission called Inspiration4, which spins farther than the International Space Station (about 400 km above sea level) is the first to go this far in space since a mission to repair the Hubble Telescope in 2009.

Days more than minutes

Its objective is to raise $ 200 million for St Jude's hospital and to study the effects of space on this crew made up entirely of amateur astronauts.

The ultimate goal, however, is to prove that space travel is accessible to as many people as possible - even if it remains for the moment reserved for the richest - while the United States and private companies like SpaceX have made the space tourism bet.

"Missions like Inspiration4 help advance spaceflight to allow everyone to go into orbit and beyond," said Elon Musk in a tweet.

With this mission, a new record is broken: there are currently 14 humans in space.

They were 13 in the International Space Station (ISS) in 2009.

There are currently seven in the ISS and three Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, which is bringing them home after 90 days in the Tiangong space station.

The SpaceX mission concludes a summer marked by the flight of billionaires over the last frontier: first Richard Branson on July 11, aboard the Virgin Galactic spacecraft, then a few days later Jeff Bezos, with his company Blue Origin.

But those first two flights only offered a few minutes of weightlessness to their crew, compared to three full days for SpaceX tourists who are due to land on Saturday off the west coast of Florida.

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Space tourism: SpaceX's rocket took off from Florida with its four tourists

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Space tourism: All about SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission, which will send four novices into space

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