Stamford Advocate (Sunday)

SpaceX’s 1st tourists return after 3 days in orbit

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A SpaceX capsule carrying four space tourists aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast Saturday evening.

The first all-amateur flight to orbit Earth began three days ago with a launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The billionair­e who paid for the flight, Jared Isaacman, took two contest winners with him, as well as a childhood cancer survivor who’s now a physician assistant at the hospital where she was treated: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

They’re using the flight dubbed Inspiratio­n4 to try to raise $200 million for St. Jude.

Strangers until March, they spent six months training and preparing for potential emergencie­s aboard the automated Dragon capsule. Once in orbit, they chatted with St. Jude patients, conducted medical tests on themselves, rang the closing bell for the New York Stock Exchange and dabbled in drawing and ukulele playing.

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