The rocket is ready on the launch pad, passengers are looking forward, after months of training: SpaceX plans to carry out its first tourist, space mission early Thursday morning, sending four “novice” ordinary citizens on an ambitious, three-day journey.
The mission, titled Inspiration 4, does not include any professional astronauts, for the first time in history.
The launch is scheduled for 20.02 (03.02 Greek time), but with a “window” of five hours. The meteorological conditions seem favorable, as it was sunny this morning.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule will be launched from NASA’s famous Kennedy Center ramp 39A, Florida, from where the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon left.
The four American “tourists” will travel a little further from the International Space Station, entering orbit at 575 kilometers. They will make 15 revolutions around the Earth every day and at the end they will start the descent to fall into the ocean, off the coast of Florida, with the help of huge parachutes.
The “commander” of the mission, the man who chartered the Falcon 9 for this trip, is multimillionaire Jared Eisakman, 38, founder and CEO of e-commerce company Shift4 Payments. The amount he paid to SpaceX was not disclosed.
Eisakman offered the other three positions to unknown amateurs: Hailey Arseno, 29, survived pediatric cancer and is currently an assistant nurse. She will become the youngest American woman and the first man with an artificial limb to travel in space. Chris Sebroski, 42, an Air Force veteran, currently works in aeronautics. Earth scientist Sian Proctor, 51, will be the fourth African-American woman to go into space.
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