As of last night’s (Sept. 15) launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission (opens in new tab), there were 14 people in space, one more than the previous record.
The group of 14 people are spread across three spaceships. Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor.
And Chris Sembroski, collectively known as the Inspiration4 crew, are currently flying around the planet in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
Meanwhile, seven people—Shane NASA’s Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, and Mark Vande Hei; Russia’s Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy.
Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide; and Europe’s Thomas Pesquet—are living aboard the International Space Station right now.
Tianhe, the primary module of China’s future Tiangong space station, is home to Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo.
Motivating4 The Space Race
Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments, commissioned SpaceX to conduct a human spaceflight in 2021 under the name Inspiration4 (also stylized as Inspirati4n).
It was at 00:02:56 UTC on September 16, 2021, that a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon Resilience lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
After releasing the Dragon capsule into low Earth orbit, the mission ended when Resilience splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on September 18, 2021, at 23:06:49 UTC.
This mission, which was a benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, was the first private orbital spaceflight ever. Isaacman has been given the role of mission commander.
Hayley Arceneaux and Christopher Sembroski are the two commercial astronauts chosen by the hospital. Sian Proctor was chosen by Shift4 to take the controls.
Conclusion
This week, a historic SpaceX flight will launch with a crew of civilians rather than astronauts. Among them is a child who beat cancer.
Those in favour of the first commercial, non-government flight to orbit say it will pave the way for “everyday people” to take part in space travel, and the launch is set for Wednesday night.
The Inspiration4 crew will spend three days in space inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, while billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.
Only spent minutes in weightlessness during up-and-down sub-orbital trips to space earlier this summer.
not just any old orbit either! By using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Crew Dragon Resilience will be propelled into an orbit that is 360 miles in altitude, or 100 miles above the International Space Station.
This will be the highest altitude anyone has reached since the last shuttle visit to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
