All-amateur astronaut crew splashes down in Atlantic, another successful SpaceX mission
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 flight splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 18, completing the first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth. (Video: SpaceX)
Updated September 18, 2021 at 7:59 p.m. EDT|Published September 18, 2021 at 5:50 p.m. EDT
The quartet of amateur astronauts onboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean Saturday evening, completing the first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth and setting the stage for more privately funded missions to come.
The crew of the Inspiration4 spent three days in orbit, circling the globe at 17,500 mph, before coming back to Earth in a flight designed to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The splashdown came at 7:07 p.m. Eastern time in calm waters, a SpaceX live stream of the event showed. The astronauts emerged from the capsule, which had been hoisted aboard a recovery ship, less than 50 minutes after the splashdown.
That brought a successful end to a historic flight funded by the mission commander, Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire entrepreneur and aviation enthusiast. Never before had a group of amateurs flown to orbit before. While NASA had overseen the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft that flew them to space, the agency was not directly involved in the mission.
“That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started,” Isaacman said.
In a post-flight news conference Todd “Leif” Ericson, an Inspiration4 mission director, said: “Welcome to the second Space Age. … This is opening up a whole new chapter in spaceflight.”
Before the flight, Elon Musk’s SpaceX had flown three sets of professional, government-trained astronauts to the International Space Station, and the company has another mission for NASA scheduled for next month. But Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of opening space to the public and eventually building bases on the moon and Mars, and the Inspiration4 mission fit that goal. The company already has booked more private astronaut flights, including one tentatively scheduled for 2023 that would take a Japanese billionaire on a trip around the moon in the company’s still-under development Starship spacecraft.
During its three days in orbit, the Inspiration4 crew — which included the mission pilot, Sian Proctor, 51, a college professor from Arizona; Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old father of two from Everett, Wash.; and Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old from Memphis who works as a physician assistant — virtually rang the bell of the New York Stock Exchange (virtually), and spoke to patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of whom asked if there any cows on the “moooooon.” They also spoke with actor Tom Cruise, who has been in talks to fly on a later SpaceX flight to the International Space Station, as well as U2’s Bono.
In an interview with CBS News, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission director, said there was a “minor waste management issue that the crew and mission control were required to troubleshoot. But honestly, this did not impact the mission.”
In the post-flight news conference, Ericson said there was a problem with a fan. “As in most exploratory adventures like spaceflight there’s always been one or two little hiccups along the way,” he said. “But this was dealt with amazingly by the SpaceX team.”
Benji Reed, SpaceX’s senior director of human spaceflight, said, “We couldn’t have asked for a more successful mission.”
When planning the flight, Isaacman asked SpaceX about the feasibility of flying at an altitude even higher than the International Space Station, which orbits the Earth at about 240 miles above the planet’s surface.
After SpaceX engineers deemed it safe, the Inspiration4 crew hit an altitude of about 367 miles, which is also higher than the Hubble Space Telescope and most space shuttle flights, and it set a record for SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Views of Earth from that height reportedly were amazing, especially since SpaceX added a curved window at the top of the spacecraft so the travelers could spend time gazing at the stars and earth below, almost as if they were outside the craft.
At a press briefing before the flight, Isaacman said that he wanted the mission to push the envelope. “If we’re going to go to the moon again, and we’re going to go to Mars and beyond, we’ve got to get a little outside our comfort zone and take the next step in that direction,” he said.
For the first day or so, there was limited information about what the crew was up to or how they were doing. Images and video were not made public.
On Friday, though, the mission’s Twitter account posted a photo of the astronauts, all smiling and looking healthy. “The crew of #Inspiration4 had an incredible first day in space! They’ve completed more than 15 orbits around planet Earth since liftoff and made full use of the Dragon upola.”
Then it posted the video of the crew speaking with patients at of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And on Friday afternoon, the crew hosted a live broadcast showing viewers around the capsule and giving them a sense of how they had been spending their time.
The lack of information was not a surprise, especially given that the crew is made up entirely of amateurs whom had never been to space before, said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, a think tank.
“I would not be surprised to find out that they had some ‘adjustment’ challenges with orbital spaceflight. Something like half of all people who have been in space have experienced initial bouts of nausea and space sickness as their body adjusts,” he said.
“Also, keep in mind that these people are spending three days in very proximity to each other and are probably having to figure out everything from sleeping and eating to using the toilet with very little privacy. I’m not surprised they’re a bit reluctant to broadcast that to the world.”
The crew spent a fair amount of time conducting experiments to measure the effect of weightlessness on the human body. Hayley Arceneaux, the crew’s medical officer, took ultrasound readings on her fellow astronauts to measure how their bodies were reacting. Chris Sembroski, a father of two and an engineer at Lockheed Martin, played his ukulele. And Sian Proctor, a professor at a community college, brought art supplies and drew a picture of their Dragon spacecraft.
Isaacman placed the first bet from space, a $4,000 wager that the Philadelphia Eagles would win the Super Bowl. MGM, which announced the bet, said it was contributing $25,000 to St. Jude.
The menu for the Inspiration4 crew was varied — pasta and meatballs, salami, bacon and cheddar, pasta Bolognese. For snacks, there were granola bars, peanut butter cups, apricots and M & Ms, which are good for shooting around in the weightless environment of space.
Proctor reportedly was especially fond of pizza. SpaceX founder Elon Musk apologized on Twitter that the Dragon capsule hadn’t come equipped with a way to heat it up.
“Sorry it was cold!” he wrote. “Dragon will have a food warmer & free wifi next time.”
Here’s what to know
The crew consists of the flight’s commander and sponsor, Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old who is the capsule’s pilot; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old college professor from Arizona; Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old father of two from Everett, Wash.; and Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old from Memphis who works as a physician assistant.
The flight was billed as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Isaacman donated $100 million to the hospital. Sembroski won his seat in a sweepstakes among donors to the hospital. Arcenaux was treated for cancer at the hospital as a child.
Isaacman has not said how much he paid SpaceX for the flight, the first crewed space journey from the United States that was not planned and overseen by NASA. On its live feed, SpaceX said the total raised for St. Jude was $157 million so far, $4 million of that during the 90 minutes viewers could follow the spacecraft’s return from space.
The splashdown came at 7:07 p.m. Eastern time in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. The Inspiration4 was launched into space about 71 hours earlier, at 8:02 p.m. Wednesday.
The hatch of the spacecraft was opened less than 40 minutes after splashdown. And the crew has exited the vehicle. First came Hayley Arceneaux, the 29-year old, cancer survivor who became the first person with a prosthetic to fly to space.
Then came Sian Proctor, strutting away from the space capsule. She was followed by Chris Sembroski, who was seen watching the movie “Spaceballs” as the capsule started its descent toward Earth. Finally, came the mission commander, Jared Isaacman, who dropped out of high school at age 16 to start his company, Shift4 Payments. That made him a billionaire, rich enough to fund the first all-civilian to space.
As he exited the spacecraft, he waved and pumped his fists, with a large smile on his face.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has been hoisted into the “nest” of the recovery ship, located in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Canaveral. The crew should be able to exit the capsule shortly once safety checks are completed. Then the crew will be checked by medical personnel before being flown back to land to be reunited with their families and friends.
Last year, when SpaceX brought back its first crew of astronauts to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, the spacecraft was crowded by a crowd of pleasure boaters who descended on the site off the Florida Panhandle.
Since then, SpaceX has worked more closely with the Coast Guard to keep people away. The spacecraft floating on the sea is still loaded with combustible propellant, and the company wanted to do a better job of keeping people away.
SpaceX did appear on this mission to keep the area clear so that the recovery crews could prepare the capsule to be raised on to the deck of the recovery ship. But Saturday’s landing site was also in the Atlantic Ocean, at sunset, not the Gulf, which may have affected how accessible it was to pleasure boaters.
The Inspiration4 mission completed a series of historic firsts that were catalogued and released to reporters this evening by the mission’s public relations team. They include:
First all-civilian human spaceflight to orbit
First Black female spacecraft pilot
Youngest American in orbit
First person to fly to space with a prosthetic
Farthest flight for a human spaceflight since the Hubble missions
First time SpaceX has operated three Dragons in space
First free-flight of a Dragon spacecraft on a human spaceflight mission. Previous Dragon missions had the International Space Station as destination.
Largest contiguous window ever flown in space
First splashdown of a Dragon crew in the Atlantic Ocean
First thrice-flown Falcon 9 booster to launch a human spaceflight mission
The Dragon spacecraft carrying the four-member Inspiration4 crew has splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. Recovery ships are speeding toward the capsule, which will be hoisted onto the deck of a ship. The crews would exit the capsule then and be assessed by medical personnel before coming back to land.
The Dragon spacecraft has begin its plunge through the thickening atmosphere, generating temperatures as high as 3,500 Fahrenheit. As a result of the extreme heat, a plasma layer builds up around the spacecraft causing a communications blackout with the ground. The blackout should last about four minutes.
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How much money did Inspiration4 raise for St. Jude?
Jared Isaacman, the commander of the Inspiration4 mission and its benefactor, designed the mission as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The goal was to raise $200 million, with Isaacman donating $100 million of his own money.
In its broadcast stream Saturday, SpaceX said the effort was more than halfway to the goal of raising another $100 million, with the total now at $153 million.
From the beginning, the mission was designed to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And some of the hospital’s patients got to speak with the Inspiration4 crew while they were in space.
That had a special meaning for Hayley Arceneaux, the crew’s medical officer.
“As a kid I was treated for bone cancer, and I spent a year at St. Jude,” she told the patients, who were assembled on a Zoom call. “I had some chemo and surgery, which might sound familiar to some of y’all. But then I was able to grow up and get my dream job, and now I’m adding astronaut to my resume.”
Patients asked questions about the astronauts’ sleeping arrangements, the view, whether they could take pictures. And one asked if there were any cows on the “moooooon.”
“I hope there will be one day,” said Sian Proctor, an Arizona college professor and the mission’s pilot.
During its three days in space, the Inspiration4 crew conducted science experiments designed to “increase humanity’s knowledge on the impact of spaceflight on the human body,” according to a news release.
SpaceX is working with the Translational Research Institute for Space Health at the Baylor College of Medicine and investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine to collect biological samples from the crew before, during and after the flight.
As a result of the experiments, scientists hope to better understand how space affects sleep, heart rate and blood-oxygen saturation. They will also assess changes in behavioral and cognitive performance. During the flight, medical officer Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant, scanned organs using a small handheld ultrasound device.
After launching on SpaceX’s first human spaceflight, a test launch to the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley broadcast a tour of the capsule to give people on the ground a sense of what their journey was like.
On the Inspiration4 mission, however, there was limited information about what the crew was up to and how they were doing. For the first day or so, at least, images and video were not made public. The day after the crew reached orbit, SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter, “Just spoke to the @Inspiration4 crew. All is well.”
On Friday, the mission’s Twitter account posted a photo of them, all smiling and looking healthy. “The crew of #Inspiration4 had an incredible first day in space! They’ve completed more than 15 orbits around planet Earth since liftoff and made full use of the Dragon cupola.”
Then it posted a video of the crew speaking with patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And on Friday afternoon, the crew hosted a live broadcast showing viewers around the capsule and giving them a sense of how they had been spending their time.
The lack of information was not a surprise, especially given that the crew is made up entirely of amateurs who had never been to space before, said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, a think tank.
“I would not be surprised to find out that they had some ‘adjustment’ challenges with orbital spaceflight. Something like half of all people who have been in space have experienced initial bouts of nausea and space sickness as their body adjusts,” he said.
“Also, keep in mind that these people are spending three days in very close proximity to each other and are probably having to figure out everything from sleeping and eating to using the toilet with very little privacy. I’m not surprised they’re a bit reluctant to broadcast that to the world.”
With deorbit burn completed, spacecraft’s return is set
SpaceX has completed the 15-minute deorbit burn that lowers the Dragon spacecraft out of Earth orbit and puts it on a path to splashdown off the Florida coast.
The firing of the Draco engines on the spacecraft is the “final burn before Dragon begins to reduce his altitude, get away from that orbital velocity of 17,500 miles an hour, and start to make its way to its splashdown zone off the coast of Florida,” SpaceX engineer Andy Tran said during the broadcast.
Engineers will now close the nosecone of the vehicle in preparation of coming through the atmosphere.
Splashdown still is scheduled for 7:06 p.m. Eastern time.
Tom Cruise called the Inspiration4 astronauts in space.
It’s not clear what they discussed, but Cruise may have wanted some pointers about what it’s like to be in orbit. Last year, then-NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said the space agency was working with Cruise to film a movie on the International Space Station.
There haven’t been any updates since. But a Russian film crew will beat Cruise to it.
Next month, Yulia Peresild, an actress, and Klim Shipenko, the film’s director, are scheduled to fly to the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. They would spend about 10 days filing a movie called “The Challenge,” about a doctor sent to the station to save an astronaut’s life.
The menu for the Inspiration4 crew was varied — ranging from pasta and meatballs, to salami, bacon and cheddar, and even pasta Bolognese. For snacks, there were granola bars, peanut butter cups, apricots and M&Ms, which are good for shooting around in the weightless environment of space.
Crew member Sian Proctor seemed to eat a lot of pizza. But SpaceX founder Elon Musk apologized on Twitter that it was cold and the Dragon capsule didn’t come equipped with a way to heat it up.
“Sorry it was cold!” he wrote. “Dragon will have a food warmer & free wifi next time.”