SpaceX will put 4 people in orbit with no astronauts
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX is set to launch four ordinary citizens into orbit Wednesday night without any professional astronauts along for the ride, an unprecedented feat in the history of spaceflight.
The five-hour launch window for Inspiration4 will open at 8:02 p.m. EDT, the team said in a news release Sunday. The U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 70% chance of favorable conditions for launch from Launch Complex 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center.
A backup window opens at 8:05 p.m. EDT Thursday.
Sitting atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will be four private citizens in a specially modified Crew Dragon capsule awaiting to start three days of orbiting the Earth, the first time an all-civilian crew will have orbited the planet.
Paying for it is Jared Isaacman, a 38year-old billionaire high-school dropout, who is promoting the flight as fundraising effort for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Joining him will be:
Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude. She was treated for bone cancer at the hospital as a child.
Chris Sembroski, an aerospace worker from Seattle who was selected from among 72,000 entries based on donations to St. Jude.
Sian Proctor, an educator and trained pilot who was a finalist in NASA’s 2009 astronaut class.
The crew ran through a dress rehearsal of launch day activities Sunday and SpaceX successfully test-fired the Falcon 9’s engines overnight.
Netflix is also documenting the team’s preparation and flight for a series on its platform. While “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space” is labeled a documentary series, it is more akin to reality television than a Ken Burns film.
Video cameras seemed to have been omnipresent for months, capturing everything from the moment the crew members first found out they were headed to space (via Zoom calls) to them sharing the news with friends and family to a trip to Kennedy Space Center to visit the launch pad where they will blast off. It even includes video footage of Arceneaux as a 10-year-old patient at St. Jude.