4th inspiration: SpaceX launches the world’s first all-civilian crew into orbit

The four astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Inspiration 4 have successfully completed their journey into space. On Wednesday night, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four space tourists launched the first mission to orbit the Earth with an all-civilian crew from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The crew entered orbit 12 minutes after the Dragon capsule separated from the rocket’s send stage, while the reusable first stage returned to Earth for a vertical landing on a sea barge. The spaceship’s trajectory will take it 357 miles (575 kilometres) above the International Space Station (ISS).

The four-person crew, all of whom are Americans, will splash down off the coast of Florida after three days of spinning around the Earth. This was confirmed by SpaceX’s official Twitter account, which provides real-time information “The astronauts had arrived in space! Dragon will perform two phasing fires to reach its cruising orbit of 575 kilometres, from which the crew will spend the next three days orbiting the planet.”

Isaacman, a high school dropout who founded Shift4 Payments and is an avid flyer, has not been told how much the trip cost him. The cost, however, is in the tens of millions of dollars. Isaacman’s three crewmates were chosen through a competition, and their experiences were documented in a Netflix documentary.

Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old medical assistant, was diagnosed with cancer as a child. She will be the first person and the youngest American to go into orbit with a prosthesis on a portion of her femur. Chris Sembroski, 42, is a retired aerospace data engineer from the United States Air Force. In 2009, 51-year-old geoscientist and educator Sian Proctor came perilously close to becoming a NASA astronaut. She is only the fourth African-American woman to visit the International Space Station.

The mission’s goal is to raise $200 million for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, a well-known hospital in the state. Arceneaux was treated there as a child and still works there today. The team will bring a variety of items, including a ukulele, hops for making space beer, and non-fungible tokens that will be auctioned off to raise funds for the cause.