Four ‘Amateur Astronauts’ Launched into Orbit by SpaceX

By Roxana Ion

Posted on September 16, 2021

SpaceX just hit another milestone by launching its first private crewed mission to space.

The Inspiration4 crew includes one billionaire and three ordinary citizens cruising in a SpaceX Dragon capsule and will spend the next three days circling our planet. The team made of Jared Issacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski will complete six months of accelerated training with the SpaceX teams.

The Dragon mission is basically a “free flight” to a mark an altitude of 575km, approximately 150km over the orbiting laboratory and about the height from where the Hubble Space Telescope observes the universe.

Later this year, this mission will be followed by two private visits to the International Space Station (ISS). One will take place in October, while the second will happen in the New Year.

The Inspiration4 experiment was acquired from SpaceX by Mr. Isaacman, known for developing systems to process credit card payments.

The mission’s goal is to serve as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital and hopefully help kids with cancer, for which Mr. Isaacman already donated $100 million.

Four ‘Amateur Astronauts’ Launched into Orbit by SpaceX