Four civilian space tourists were launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday night.
The rocket lit up the sky as the nine engines propelled the two-stage rocket into space.
The Crew Dragon space capsule arrived shortly after its first orbit, and the rocket returned to Earth and landed aboard the unmanned ship Just Read the Instructions off the coast of Florida.
The second stage of the Dragon capsule, which put the capsule into its final orbit 585 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, was completed at 5 a.m. Thursday, Norwegian time. This is a new altitude record for Dragon, which is farthest in space from the International Space Station (ISS), whose orbit is 408 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
In this orbit, the four space tourists will spend three days while the capsule is moving at 28,000 kilometers per hour around the Earth.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 38, is behind the historic launch.
This is the first time that such a flight has been carried out without professional astronauts on board.
The third billionaire in space
In recent months, many other billionaires have traveled to space. Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos reach new heights with craftsmanship from their companies Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.
But Branson and Bezos made a short click over what is officially the boundary between the atmosphere and space.
The SpaceX launch brought Isaacman and the three others on board into space, far from Branson and Bezos.
Isaacman leased the spacecraft to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
– This is not without risks, Isaacman admitted in a Netflix documentary about the project.
Hope, generosity and prosperity
It must be said that Isaacman had some relevant experience. He has extensive experience as a hobby pilot and qualifications that enable him to pilot several military aircraft.
In 2008, he set a record when he flew around the Earth in less than 62 hours in a small jet plane.
The 38-year-old hired his crew in an original way. He chose three people to represent three values: hope, generosity, and prosperity.
Medical assistant Hayley Arceneaux, 29, is a cancer survivor as a child and represents hope. She will be the youngest American — and the first person to have a prosthetic — sent into orbit. In space travel, you will have medical responsibility.
He wanted to be an astronaut
Responsibility for communicating with Earth rests with Chris Sembrowski, 42, a US Air Force veteran. It represents generosity because he donated money to the hospital that once treated Arsino.
Geology professor Sian Proctor, 51, has previously applied to become a NASA astronaut. She will be the fourth African American woman to participate in a space mission.
Proctor has been booming since she started a space-themed e-commerce company as part of Isaacman’s Entrepreneurship Competition.
“Explorer. Unapologetic entrepreneur. Alcohol fanatic. Certified writer. Wannabe tv evangelist. Twitter fanatic. Student. Web scholar. Travel buff.”
