Inspiration4

This has been a big year for Space Tourism, from the sub-orbital hops of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson to the multi-day orbital journey of the Inspiration4 crew. This raised a number of questions about what it means to be an astronaut. Many claimed that these space-tourists are nothing but passengers, and calling them astronauts dilutes the title provided to space heroes like Neil Armstrong, while others said that reaching space should be enough for the title. The FAA has now put this question to bed, issuing this year’s space tourists FAA Commercial Astronaut wings, but shutting down the program moving forward.

To date, four African American women have flown in space. Mae Jemison was the first Black woman to travel to space in 1992, and most recently Dr. Sian Proctor flew to space as part of the Inspiration4 mission.

While the Inspiration4 crew was in space conducting medical research and chatting with St Jude patients, they also took the opportunity to get some “out-of-this-world” pictures. While they had a professional camera with them, they have just as many, if not more pictures and videos taken with iPhones.

It’s tradition for space travelers to receive wings when they return from their trip. Whether military, civilian, or private, if you fly to space, a shiny pair of wings will most likely await you upon your return from some organization. This now includes private SpaceX passengers, as the Inspiration4 crew were the first to receive new Dragon wings.

This week, the Space Force gained a new look, NASA human spaceflight leadership has been divided, and preparations continue for Artemis I.

This week Inspiration4 launched into orbit and returned to Earth, SpaceX launched polar Starlink satellites from the West Cost, and a Falcon Heavy side booster will be put on display.

The Inspiration4 crew successfully splashed down in the Atlantic following their nearly three days orbiting the Earth. In a great conclusion to the mission, Elon Musk shared that he would be donating $50 million dollars to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—pushing the fundraising campaign past its $200 million goal.

Wednesday night we witnessed the first all civilian crew launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. Over the next three days, they will perform research and enjoy the views of Earth from an altitude of 580 km. Learn how to track Inspiration4’s Dragon spacecraft throughout their flight.

SpaceX launched their first non-NASA crewed mission, Inspiration4, to orbit using their Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday night. The crew members are not professional astronauts, but average citizens. They were not selected based on the strict requirements of previous astronauts, but instead for their ability to represent and inspire the world.

The long-awaited Inspiration4 mission will launch this week from the historic LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The flight, paid for by Shift4 founder and CEO Jared Issacman, will carry Issacman along with 3 other civilians.

Over the months we have come to know Issacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Dr. Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski. This week a new era of spaceflight begins as these four take to the sky inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule as the company’s first commercial astronaut mission.

Date: Wednesday, September 15th, 8:02 p.m. EDT

Tonight SpaceX plans to launch its first privately crewed mission to space. Here is how to watch the all-civilian crew of Inspiration4 launch from historic LC-39A on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

Inspiration4 has been pushing towards its $200 million fundraising goal for St. Jude. A part of the cause is an NFT auction, which today announced what will be up to buy, including pieces from Inspiration4 pilot Dr. Sian Proctor.

Inspiration4 announced today that a number of objects set to fly on the first all-civilian mission to space will be auctioned in support of St. Jude.

Monday morning Netflix released the first two episodes of their Inspiration4 documentary series. The series will cover the crew’s journey to and from space onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. This week we got to see the first part of their journey, the selection of the Inspiration4 crew.

This week, SpaceX’s new ships arrived in Florida while Firefly had their first launch that ended in failure. Virgin Galactic has been grounded by the FAA along with more Top stories this week.

SpaceX is flying four private citizens to orbit on a three-day mission called Inspiration4, and Apple hardware will be key in a first-of-its-kind research study happening during the flight. These products include Apple Watch Series 6, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPad mini 4, as selected by SpaceX.