First civil mission in space conducts scientific research | International | News

On their first day in space, the four crew members of the first civilian-only space mission, which began its journey on Wednesday from Florida (USA) aboard a SpaceX spacecraft, are investigating the effect of orbital flights in the human body.

SpaceX, the company responsible for this historic mission that has opened the doors to private space travel, published at dawn this Thursday on its Twitter account a short video taken from the observation dome of the Dragon capsule with the Earth in the background.

“Few have come before and many are about to follow. The door is open now and it is quite incredible ”, confessed on Wednesday from inside the capsule the billionaire Jared Isaacman, commander of the mission and who also bears all the expenses.

In their three-day mission, Isaacman, as well as aeronautical engineer Chris Sembroski, medical assistant Hayley Arceneaux and scientist and educator Sian Proctor, will conduct “research to promote human health on Earth and during future long-term space flights. duration, ”SpaceX noted.

Almost three hours after taking off Wednesday night from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Dragon capsule reached a circular orbit 585 kilometers (about 360 miles) away from Earth, more than the Space Station. International (EEI).

“Farther than any other human spaceflight since the Hubble (space telescope) missions (540 kilometers),” according to SpaceX.

More than 12 hours after the liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket that put the spacecraft into space, the crew members have circled the globe more than once, given its travel speed of more than 28,160 kilometers per hour (17,500 mph) that allows them to circle the planet every 90 minutes.

The US media have highlighted this Thursday that in addition to being the first space flight without an astronaut on board, it is also the first flight with an African-American pilot (Proctor) and with the youngest American to arrive in orbital space: Arceneaux, 29 years old. and cancer survivor.

The four civilians received training for six months on maneuvers in zero gravity and were also prepared for emergencies, exercises for entry and exit of spaceships and spacesuits, as well as simulations of partial and complete missions.

Inspiration4 is the fourth manned mission for SpaceX, but the first that does not carry professionally trained astronauts, and it also has a goal of raising $ 200 million for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

After liftoff on Wednesday, the reusable part of the Falcon 9 rocket landed a few minutes later on SpaceX’s “Just Read the Instructions” platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Dragon capsule is Resilience, in which the first NASA astronaut mission to the ISS traveled in 2020 as a result of the program carried out through SpaceX, which ended a nine-year drought of launches from US soil since the end of shuttle program in 2011.

The trip will end with the fall of the Dragon capsule into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida with the help of a parachute. (I)