They have already circled the earth six times.
The four space tourists who took off Wednesday night to Thursday from Cape Canaveral base spent their first day in orbit in the SpaceX spacecraft.
On the program, scientific research and discussions with young patients from St Jude's hospital for children with cancer.
The children of St Jude's Hospital were able to talk to the Inspiration4 mission crew, “asking them the question everyone is asking:
are there cows on the moon?
The hospital tweeted.
This just in from @ inspiration4x Mission Control.
We can confirm that St. Jude patients got to speak with the crew live this afternoon, asking the questions we all want to know like "are there cows on the moon?"
Standby and follow us for more.
🐄🌙
- St. Jude (@StJude) September 16, 2021
Inspiration4 is the first space mission entirely made up of private citizens on board.
The latter have "circled the Earth 5.5 times, carried out the first series of scientific research and had a few meals" before going to bed, the company founded by Elon Musk said on Twitter.
The latter indicated on his Twitter account that he had spoken with the crew and that "everything is fine".
"Enabling everyone to go to orbit and beyond"
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, medical assistant Hayley Arceneaux, aeronautical engineer Chris Sembroski and science teacher Sian Proctor will now join the dome of the Dragon capsule, a huge glass dome installed to provide passengers with a 360-degree view. degrees on the vacuum of space and which replaces the system normally intended to dock with the ISS.
Read also VIDEO.
SpaceX: who are the four American civilians sent into space with Elon Musk's rocket?
The mission called Inspiration4, which spins farther than the International Space Station - about 400 km above sea level - is the first to go this far in space since a mission to repair the Hubble Telescope in 2009. It aims to lift $ 200 million for St Jude's Hospital and to study the effects of space on this crew made up entirely of amateur astronauts.
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.
pic.twitter.com/StK4BTWSA6
- Inspiration4 (@ inspiration4x) September 17, 2021
The goal, however, is to prove that space travel is accessible to as many people as possible - even if it remains for the moment reserved for the richest - while the United States and private companies like SpaceX have made the bet. space tourism.
"Missions like Inspiration4 help advance spaceflight to allow everyone to go into orbit and beyond," said Elon Musk in a tweet.
Return scheduled for Saturday
With this mission, a new record is broken: there are currently 14 humans in space.
There were 13 of them in the International Space Station (ISS) in 2009. There are currently seven in the ISS and three Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, which brings them home after 90 days in the Tiangong space station.
The SpaceX mission concludes a summer marked by the flight of billionaires over the last frontier: first Richard Branson on July 11, aboard the Virgin Galactic spacecraft, then a few days later Jeff Bezos, with his company Blue Origin.
These first two flights offered only a few minutes of weightlessness to their crew, compared to three full days for SpaceX tourists who are due to land on Saturday off the west coast of Florida.
View from Dragon's cupola pic.twitter.com/Z2qwKZR2lK
- SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021
