Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning to send its first “all-civilian” crew into space in late 2021 on a charity-focused mission led by technology entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. The company said in a press release that it will choose three people to ride alongside Isaacman to orbit aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
Isaacman, a trained pilot and chief executive of Shift4 Payments, donated $ 100 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, he said in a press release. He also plans to donate the other three Crew Dragon seats for the trip to people “who will be selected to represent the pillars of the mission of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.” SpaceX in a separate statement said the seats will go “to individuals in the general public that will be announced in the coming weeks”.
The mission, named Inspiration4, will launch from SpaceX’s 39A launch site located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will launch on top of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and will receive special training from SpaceX, with “a specific focus on orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity and other forms of stress testing”.
The four-person crew will spend a few days in the acorn-shaped Crew Dragon capsule as it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes “along a custom flight path,” SpaceX said.
SpaceX has already launched two crews into space, but they were with trained NASA astronauts – including an astronaut from the Japan space agency – on government-funded trips to the International Space Station. The Inspiration4 mission marks the second SpaceX completely private mission to be announced. The company’s next Ax-1 mission hosts a crew of four private astronauts, who pay $ 55 million each for an eight-day trip to the ISS.
Under development…