SpaceX announced the launch of Inspiration4, “the world’s first all-civilian space mission.”
Space tourists will stay in orbit for three days, and the altitude will be about 540 kilometers. The mission will use a new Crew Dragon ship of a special design, in which the docking gateway to the ISS is replaced by a glass dome, reports inspiration4.com.
Joining the first-ever civilian crew for spaceflight are researcher Nias Proctor, who will serve as the mission’s pilot, and Air Force veteran and Lockheed Martin employee Christopher Sembroski, who will serve as flight engineer. A member of the space mission was 29-year-old Hayley Arsenox, who suffered bone cancer as a child.
The first crew member is Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman. He is part of a charity campaign to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will pay for the seats of three other astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Russian cosmonaut, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems (IMBP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences Oleg Kotov said that the International Space Station was built so that professional cosmonauts solve scientific problems; it is not well suited for a space tourist.