SpaceX all-civilian crew mission 'Inspiration4' lifts off, reaches orbit
US firm sees 'exciting' moment as space tourism booms
SpaceX rocket ship lifted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying all-civilian crew. The crew includes billionaire e-commerce executive and three other private citizens. This is the first all-civilian crew. The lift-off took place just before sunset from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
A SpaceX webcast of the launch showed Jared Isaacman, 38, and his crewmates - Sian Proctor, 51, Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and Chris Sembroski, 42 - strapped into the pressurized cabin of their gleaming white SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, wearing their helmeted black-and-white flight suits.
The capsule carrying the crew was perched atop company's reusable two-stage Falcon-9 rocket. The Crew Dragon, fitted with a special observation dome in place of its usual docking hatch, reached orbit almost 10 minutes after the 8:03 p.m. EDT blastoff.
First-stage booster of the rocket descended back to Earth and touched down on a landing platform floating in the Atlantic on a drone ship. It had been named Just Read the Instructions.
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The flight, marking the first crewed mission to orbit with no professional astronauts along for the ride, is expected to last about three days from launch to splashdown in the Atlantic, mission officials said.
It marked the debut flight of SpaceX owner Elon Musk's new orbital tourism business, and a leap ahead of competitors likewise offering rides on rocket ships to customers willing to pay a small fortune for the exhilaration - and bragging rights - of spaceflight.
Isaacman has paid an undisclosed sum to fellow billionaire Musk to send himself and his three crewmates aloft. Time magazine has put the ticket price for all four seats at $200 million.
The mission, called Inspiration4, was conceived by Isaacman mainly to raise awareness and support for one of his favorite causes, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a leading pediatric cancer center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Inspiration4 is aiming for an orbital altitude of 360 miles (575 km) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station or Hubble Space Telescope, and the farthest any human will have flown from Earth since the end of NASA's Apollo moon program in 1972, according to SpaceX.
At that height, the Crew Dragon will circle the globe once every 90 minutes at a speed of some 17,000 miles per hour (27,360 kph), or roughly 22 times the speed of sound.
(With inputs from agencies)