09/19/2021 4:36 AM
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 09/19/2021 4:36 AM
The Dragon capsule, with the four crew members who were part of the Inspiration 4 mission, the first to be fully integrated by civilians, returned to Earth this Saturday after remaining in its orbit for the last three days.
The operation was carried out by the private company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX).
At 7:06 pm, local time (one more in Argentina), the final return of the first space flight carried out
without professional astronauts
took place, which took off last Wednesday from Cape Canaveral with the propulsion of a Falcon 9 rocket from the company of Elon Musk.
The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean, supported by four parachutes, off the coast of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
During the mission they reached an altitude of 575 kilometers (357 miles), above the current position of the Hubble Space Telescope.
and the International Space Station (ISS).
At a speed of 28,160 kilometers per hour, they
circled the planet every 90 minutes
.
"This mission has shown the world that space is for all of us, and that ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact on the world around them," said Kris Young, SpaceX's director of space operations.
The Florida capsule.
splashed off the coast of the Kennedy Space Center.
Photo: SpaceX
So far, the mission has raised
nearly $ 154 million
for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
However, from SpaceX they warned that "the mission does not end here", because they intend to reach the goal of 200 million US dollars.
The Dragon capsule, 8 meters high and 4 meters wide, was modified for this flight, because a large glass dome was installed to offer a 360-degree view of space to the crew, who were trained to take command. the ship in an emergency, if automated controls failed.
The Inspiration4 mission can be followed in "near real time" in a documentary series on Netflix, the streaming platform announced.
The unpublished travelers
The crew members were billionaire
Jared Isaacman
, aeronautical engineer
Chris Sembroski
, medical assistant
Hayley Arceneaux
, and scientist, pilot and educator
Sian Proctor
.
All received an exhaustive
six-month training
to be able to participate in this unprecedented experience.
Isaacman hired SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, to make a personal dream come true and vindicate the role of "ordinary people," whom he chose through a competition.
The mission reached an altitude of 575 kilometers
At age 42, Sembroski, a former US Air Force officer who now works in the aviation industry, got the "bounty" seat as a former veteran who served in Iraq.
For her part, Arceneaux, 29, is a pediatric cancer survivor and became not only the youngest American woman to enter orbit, but also the first person with a (femur) prosthesis to do so.
Proctor is a 51-year-old science teacher who narrowly missed the chance to become an astronaut at NASA in 2009, where her father worked during the Apollo missions.
She was the mission pilot, assisting the commander.
Mission records
Inspiration 4 meant the realization of
milestones that will remain in the history
of the space race, not only for putting civilians in orbit but also for other important objectives.
The official website of the mission listed them all.
- First fully civilian human spaceflight in orbit.
- First black woman to be a spaceship pilot.
- Youngest American in space.
- First person to fly into space with a prosthesis.
- The furthest flight for a human space flight since the Hubble missions.
Inspiration4 meant the realization of many unpublished events.
Photo: REUTERS / Thom Baur / File Photo
- First time SpaceX has operated three dragons in space.
- First free flight of a Dragon spaceship in a human space flight mission.
- The largest adjoining window ever flown in space.
- First landing of a Dragon crew in the Atlantic Ocean.
- First Falcon 9 thruster thrice boosted to launch a human spaceflight mission.
Look also
SpaceX shares the first image from the dome of the Crew Dragon in the first 100% tourist space mission
SpaceX tourists spoke to Tom Cruise from space
