A SpaceX capsule with the first amateur astronauts landed on Earth

Belongs to SpaceX Corporation The Crew Dragon capsule, on which the new astronauts were traveling, landed in ocean waters at 1.07 Poland time, almost exactly after a three-day journey. Welcome to earth. Your mission has shown that space is available to everyone, the SpaceX flight controller announced, welcoming the four new astronauts.

Billionaire chief of mission and pilot Jared Isakman replied, “It’s been an amazing flight.” He funded a three-day mission and purchased seats on the plane for the three remaining members, Dr. Hayley Arsenault, geologist Sian Proctor, and computer scientist Chris Sembrowski. According to Time magazine, he spent $200 million on this.

It was the first flight into orbit without professional astronauts from NASA or other space agencies. The stated goal by Isaacman was to raise $200 million from donors for research into St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The facility deals with, among other things, research into the treatment of cancer in children.

During the three-day flight, the mission members circled the Earth at an altitude of nearly 600 kilometers, above the orbit of the International Space Station. They have circled the Earth dozens of times.

Inspiration 4 is SpaceX’s debut in space tourism and this year’s third – after Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin – a journey into the billionaire universe. More flights have already been booked.

SpaceX’s ambitions go further – Musk wants to send a special flight into lunar orbit in the coming years. For this, it will be necessary to complete work on the Starship, which will also be used for manned flights to Mars.

In addition to SpaceX, two more flights are planned this year International Space Station (ISS) – In October, a Russian team will fly there to produce a feature film, and in December, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will blast off with a Soyuz rocket.

(metric tons)