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Now has a panorama window instead of the ISS docking mechanism:
With this "Dragon" capsule from Space X at the tip of a Falcon 9 launcher, four laypeople take off into space in a chartered spaceship
Photo:
- / dpa
Four people in space suits, perfectly lit and staged: Elon Musk's space company SpaceX recently presented its four first space tourists on the short message service Twitter.
The glossy photos indicate that SpaceX wants to turn the launch of its manned "Dragon" space capsule on Wednesday evening into a major event - not entirely without good reason, because today's launch of the crew heralds a turning point.
Starting at 8:00 p.m. local time in Florida (2:00 a.m. in Germany), the Dragon capsule with the four space travelers, the "Inspiration4", as SpaceX calls the crew of its spaceship, will launch into space and circle the earth together for three days.
The flight is the next big bang in the development of space tourism and a big step into this lucrative market for Musk's space company SpaceX.
At the same time, the project takes space tourism to a new level.
Because
Elon Musk's
(50) venture goes well beyond what his billionaire opponents
Richard Branson
(71) and
Jeff Bezos
(57) achieved in July - in the great competition of the very wealthy for space in general and tourism in weightlessness in Special ones.
Virgin billionaire Richard Branson was shot 80 kilometers into the air with five companions on July 11, only to land back on earth after a good hour.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reached an altitude of 106 kilometers nine days later - but landed back on the ground after ten minutes.
Fully automated flight at an altitude of 575 kilometers
The SpaceX space tourists, on the other hand, are expected to reach an orbit at an altitude of 575 kilometers when they take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a Falcon 9 launcher tonight.
And they will not return to earth shortly, but will remain in space for three days.
In addition, the SpaceX space flight is the first to exclusively transport civilian, paying space guests into space - in a flight that will be fully automated.
In an emergency, the Dragon capsule can be remotely controlled from Earth.
Branson, on the other hand, had to rely on the skills of his pilots on board for his flight - because they deviated slightly from the course, his rocket plane is initially banned from flying.
The crew in SpaceX's Dragon space capsule is mixed up - and the captain is quite wealthy. The capsule pilot,
Jared Isaacman,
38, once
dropped
out of school, then started a payment processing company and became a billionaire. His three passengers include a doctor's assistant who beat bone cancer as a child, an artist, and a father of two who stands in for a friend. Just a few months ago, the four of them didn't know each other. The organizer, the private space company SpaceX, speaks of "Inspiration4" as the "first mission to orbit the earth with only laypersons".
In February, the US billionaire Jared Isaacman announced his plan.
"I've been a space fan since kindergarten," the 38-year-old, who is considered an experienced pilot, was quoted as saying.
Neither he nor SpaceX wanted to reveal how much Isaacman paid to charter the "Dragon" spaceship.
There was speculation in the media about $ 200 million - which Isaacman reportedly pays alone.
Fundraising campaign for children's hospital
Isaacman always emphasized that he wanted to raise money for the St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, with the campaign.
He himself donated $ 100 million, selected the 29-year-old doctor's assistant Hayley Arceneaux, who worked there, as the first fellow travelers - and then raffled off the other two places in the "Dragon" through fundraising campaigns.
So finally the 51-year-old artist and professor Sian Proctor and the 41-year-old aerospace engineer Chris Sembrosk joined the team.
For months now, the four of them have been preparing intensively for the trip to space - including at the SpaceX headquarters in California and during an ascent to Mount Ranier in the north-west of the USA.
"We're working on getting used to the fact that it's uncomfortable," said Isaacman.
The era of space tourism began in the early 2000s. In 2001, the US entrepreneur
Dennis Tito spent
a week on the International Space Station and paid around $ 20 million for it; he is considered the first space tourist. Around half a dozen other all-tourists followed. Isaacman is now the third billionaire after Branson and Bezos to set off from the US into space within a few weeks.
The "Inspiration4" mission, about which a documentary series is also being produced on the streaming service "Netflix", is said to fly higher than the International Space Station (ISS) and all of our planet at around 30,000 kilometers per hour for three days at around 580 kilometers above the earth 90 minutes lap.
"This flight marks the transition in manned space travel from public to private," said space historian John Logsdon of the Washington Post.
"It's like someone renting a self-steering yacht and sailing into space with it."
Ticket prices for space tourists fluctuate considerably
But even if the "Dragon" controls itself practically completely, space travel remains associated with high risks - and space tourism is not an easy industry. At the beginning of the month, the US aviation authority FAA had revoked Branson's spacecraft "SpaceShipTwo" after problems with a test flight for the time being. Nevertheless, the company continues to advertise its ticket sales, as does Bezos' company "Blue Origin", which has already announced at least two more flights for this year. With the Russian Roskosmos, which has already transported several private individuals to the international space station ISS in Soyuz capsules, there are currently four providers for space tourism.
And more are in the starting blocks: Among other things, four men from the USA, Canada and Israel are to fly to the ISS in the coming year, organized by the company Axiom Space together with the US space agency NASA and SpaceX.
The prices, however, fluctuate considerably: Branson is currently charging around 450,000 dollars for his flights with a few minutes of weightlessness, and the busy entrepreneur recently doubled the ticket price.
SpaceX takes $ 200 million for three days of space fun for four people.
There is no up-to-date information on Roscosmos all-transportation prices for space tourists.
Bezos Blue Origin has not yet announced any clear prices for its space flights either.
The ticket auction for the first flight in July is unlikely to provide a clue.
Because at the time, a bidder paid $ 28 million for the round-trip space flight - according to a report, that was much more than Blue Origin had hoped.
Musk has a verbal exchange of blows with Bezos
One thing is clear, however: space tourism is initially reserved for very wealthy private individuals. "Inspiration4" is an important step in the direction of mass tourism in space, said former NASA manager Alan Ladwig of the Washington Post. "It's important because after 70 years of discussions that it wouldn't be long before we all fly into space, it is finally working for laypeople." All visitors will also have a good view. Because Musk had a panorama window built into the capsule - instead of the docking mechanism for the ISS space station.
What is remarkable about the billionaires' race: Even with supernatural ambitions, earthly disputes are not far off.
Just recently, Bezos company Blue Origin accused Musks Space X of "hypocrisy" in complying with government regulations for satellite Internet plans.
Shortly before, Musk had wedged against Bezos via Twitter: "Complaining against SpaceX is actually his full-time job," he criticized the Amazon founder.
wed / dpa
