SpaceX on Monday announced plans for the first all-civilian space mission, an important milestone for private space flight and the nascent space tourism industry.
The mission aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will feature a four-person crew led by Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a Pennsylvania-based payment processing company. The flight is scheduled to launch sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, according to SpaceX.
“When you have a new mode of transportation, you need to have pioneers,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told Tom Costello of NBC News in an interview with NBC Nightly News. “Things are expensive in the beginning and, as you can increase the launch rate, increase the production rate, refine the technology, it becomes cheaper and accessible to more people.”
Private citizens have flown into space before, but these space tourists typically pay to hitchhike in orbit alongside trained NASA astronauts or Russian cosmonauts. Isaacman’s flight will be the first time that a crew composed entirely of private citizens will venture into space. Crew members will undergo training by SpaceX, including mission simulations for emergency preparedness and how to deal with orbital mechanics during the flight.
Isaacman said in a statement that the mission, dubbed Inspiration4, is “the realization of a lifelong dream and a step towards a future in which anyone can venture and explore the stars”.
Anyone, that is, with millions of dollars to spend on the tour. SpaceX did not reveal how much Isaacman paid for the flight.
But Musk said he hoped those early trips would lay the groundwork for more space tourism in the future, in addition to 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 great stepping stone for the private space flight industry, but it also presents enormous challenges. Musk said SpaceX’s top priority will be to maximize the safety of the crew.
“Any mission that has a team 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 other three seats on the Dragon spacecraft to crew members who will be specially selected for the humanitarian flight.
“I appreciate this tremendous responsibility that comes from commanding this mission and I want to use this historic moment to inspire humanity while helping to end childhood cancer here on Earth,” said Isaacman.
The Inspiration4 mission will enter orbit aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX has been launching rockets from the 39A Launch Complex since 2017, and the historic platform was previously used for space shuttle flights and Saturn V launches during NASA’s Apollo program on the moon.
During the multi-day mission, the dragon capsule will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes along a customized flight path, according to SpaceX. At the end of the expedition, the spacecraft will re-enter the planet’s atmosphere and land on the Florida coast.
Isaacman, a trained pilot who has flown commercial and military aircraft, will command the historic mission. A seat on the flight is reserved for a St. Jude ambassador, while a second seat will be offered to a member of the public as part of a charity campaign during the month of February.
For the last flight spot, Isaacman and Shift4 Payments will select an entrepreneur “who uses the new Shift4Shop e-commerce platform, which empowers entrepreneurs to build and develop successful online e-commerce businesses,” the company said in a statement. The competition started on Monday and runs until February 28, with the winner selected by an independent panel of judges.
Isaacman said that the announcement of the Inspiration4 flight marks “the first step on a very exciting journey”.
The first space tourist, American billionaire Dennis Tito, was launched to the International Space Station on an eight-day expedition in 2001. Tito paid $ 20 million to fly to the orbiting outpost aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Since then, only six other private citizens have flown into space, although the space tourism industry may soon be booming, as companies like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origins and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic start offering orbital tours later this year. .
Last month, SpaceX also announced that the first private space station crew, led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, will be launched in the orbital laboratory next January. Lopez-Alegria will be joined by three men, who are paying $ 55 million each 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 that is planned for sometime in 2023. Isaacman’s flight didn’t must venture so far, but Musk joked that SpaceX is open to other itineraries.
“It’s his mission,” said Musk. “He can go wherever he wants.”
