The historic Inspiration4 space mission has successfully reached orbit after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida shortly after 8:00PM EDT, entering its orbital trajectory at 8:12PM EDT. The three day mission is the first all-civilian space flight in history.
The mission, which was contracted from SpaceX by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman (who is also a trained pilot with over 6,000 hours flight time and who is also the mission's commander), is also crewed by geoscientist and science communicator Dr. Sian Proctor, childhood cancer survivor and physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux, and data scientist Chris Sembroski.
The mission was launched to raise money and awareness for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, which treats childhood cancers and other pediatric diseases at no cost to patients' families.
As of the time of this writing, the YouTube livestream of the launch alone has raised $379,993 from viewers.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the opening of the Crew Dragon capsule's nose cone, which would expose the docking mechanism it uses to connect with the International Space Station but for this mission is instead equipped with a cupola that provides the Inspiration4 crew with a 360 degree view of space while in orbit.
The problem appears to be a downlink communication issue, but the mission is still on track. After its three days in orbit, it will return to Earth and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Hi, I am Dr. Sian Proctor & I’m a geoscience professor. I’ll be launching into space in 8 days w/ my @inspiration4x crew. I’m looking forward to capturing amazing views of Earth from our @SpaceX cupola.👩🏾🚀🚀🌏#BlackInGeoscienceRollCall #BiGWeek2021 #BIMS #WomenInSTEM #BiGDiversity pic.twitter.com/bW2MUYBQEVSeptember 8, 2021
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