SpaceX announced plans on Monday for the first fully civilian mission to space, a major milestone for private spaceflight and the burgeoning space tourism industry.
The mission aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will consist of a crew of four led by Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a Pennsylvania-based payment processing company. According to SpaceX, the flight is expected to take off sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.
“If you have a whole new way of transportation, you have to have pioneers,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told NBC News’ Tom Costello in an interview with NBC Nightly News. “Things are expensive at first, and because you can increase launch speed, increase production speed, and refine the technology, it becomes less expensive and accessible to more people.”
Private citizens have flown to space before, but these space tourists typically paid to hitchhike in orbit alongside trained NASA astronauts or Russian cosmonauts. Isaacman’s flight will be the first time that a crew made up entirely of private citizens will go into space. Crew members will be trained by SpaceX, including mission simulations to prepare for emergencies and how to handle orbital mechanics during their flight.
Isaacman said in a statement that the mission, called Inspiration4, is “the realization of a lifelong dream and a step towards a future where everyone can get out and explore the stars.”
Everyone, that is, with millions of dollars to spend on the ride. SpaceX has not disclosed how much Isaacman paid for the flight.
But Musk said he hopes these early joyrides will lay the groundwork for more space tourism in the future, more than just billionaires who can afford the flights now.
“It’s like when America went to the moon in ’69 – it wasn’t just a few people, humanity went to the moon,” he said. ‘We all went there with them. And I think it’s something similar here. ‘
A fully civilian mission is a huge springboard for the private space industry, but it also presents enormous challenges. Musk said SpaceX’s top priority will be to maximize crew safety.
“Any mission with a crew on board makes me nervous,” he said. “The risk is not zero.”
The expedition is part of a charity initiative to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In addition to giving $ 100 million to St. Jude, Isaacman said he is donating the three other seats in the Dragon spacecraft to crew members who will be specially selected for the humanitarian flight.
“I appreciate this tremendous responsibility that comes with leading this mission, and I want to use this historic moment to inspire humanity while helping end cancer in children here on Earth,” Isaacman said.
The Inspiration4 mission will orbit the Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX has been launching rockets from Launch Complex 39A since 2017, and the historic path was previously used for both space shuttle flights and Saturn V launches during NASA’s Apollo Moon program.
According to SpaceX, the Dragon capsule will orbit the Earth every 90 minutes during the multi-day mission along a modified flight path. At the end of the expedition, the spacecraft will re-enter the planet’s atmosphere and splash off the coast of Florida.
Isaacman, a trained pilot who has flown both commercial and military aircraft, will be in command of the historic mission. One seat on the flight is reserved for a St. Jude ambassador, while a second seat is being offered to a member of the public as part of a February charity event.
For the last spot on the run, Isaacman and Shift4 Payments will select an entrepreneur “who uses the new Shift4Shop eCommerce platform, which enables entrepreneurs to build and grow successful e-commerce businesses online,” the company said in a statement. a statement. The competition started Monday and will run until February 28, with the winner being selected by an independent jury.
Isaacman said the announcement of the Inspiration4 flight marks “the first step of a very exciting journey”.
The first space tourist, American multi-millionaire Dennis Tito, launched an eight-day expedition to the International Space Station in 2001. Tito reportedly paid $ 20 million to fly to the outpost aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Since then, only six other private citizens have flown into space, though the space tourism industry could grow soon, as companies like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origins and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic begin offering orbital forays later this year.
Last month, SpaceX also announced that the first crew of a private space station, led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, will depart for the orbit lab in January. Lopez-Alegria is joined by three men who each pay $ 55 million to spend eight days on the space station.
In 2018, SpaceX said Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, founder and CEO of fashion retailer Zozo, would be the first private passenger to fly around the moon on a mission scheduled sometime in 2023. Isaacman’s flight is not expected to go that far. , but Musk joked that SpaceX is open to other itineraries.
“It’s his mission,” said Musk. “He can go wherever he wants.”
Originally published