After the three-day trip in space, SpaceX’s private crew, Inspiration4 returned back to earth with an epic landing. Everyone from Elon Musk to the SpaceX observers, everyone is celebrating the historic moment. Inspiration4 is the first spaceflight for humans to go fartherest away from the earth after the Apollo Mission, which was decades ago.
Inspiration4 mission director Kip O’Keefe said in a post-splashdown news conference, “It’s been an amazing ride for everyone. We couldn’t ask for a more successful mission.” Videos of the landing are being shared everywhere as the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience landing in the Atlantic ocean gently on September 18 at 7:06 pm EDT.
The civilian space flight was part of the efforts for massive fundraising for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Four of the Shift4 payments and the billionaire Jared Issacman purchased the flight to raise $200 million for the research. Space Operations Director at SpaceX mission control, Kris Young told the crew after splashdown, “Inspiration4, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome to Planet Earth. Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us and that everyday people can make extraordinary impacts in the world around them. Thank you for sharing your leadership, hope, generosity, and prosperity- and congratulations.”
To which, Isaacman replied, “Thanks so much, SpaceX. It was a heck of a ride for us. We’re just getting started.”
Moving at ~23 times speed of sound, circling Earth every ~90 minutes https://t.co/AncsjFpirC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2021
A great experience
Along with Isaacman, there is a physician’s assistant and childhood cancer survivor, Hayley Arceneaux. The other two team members are Chris Semroski and Sian Proctor who are a data scientist and a geoscientist respectively. This is the first time a spacecraft is being sent into space without any professional astronauts in the flight.
Happy. Healthy. Home.
Welcome back to Earth, @ArceneauxHayley, @rookisaacman, @DrSianProctor, and @ChrisSembroski!#Inspiration4’s mission doesn’t end here — help us reach our $200 million fundraising goal for @StJude! https://t.co/NBUL2e3f4x pic.twitter.com/hhNQydWVJJ
— Inspiration4 (@inspiration4x) September 19, 2021
Senior director of human spaceflight programs at SpaceX, Benji Reed said, “This is an awesome mission, an awesome experience and we are so thankful to the entire crew- Jared and Chris and Sian and Hayley- for participating and making this really become a reality.”
He further added, “Overall the mission was great –beautiful weather from start to finish– and it was really a great experience for everybody on the ground, and Dragon performed very well.”
Congratulations @Inspiration4x!!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2021
Elon Musk tweeted congratulating the crew. During the orbit, SpaceX shared some incredible views from the Crew Dragon. Meanwhile, the crew performed some medical experiments, collected data, and samples for researchers. The flight was 367 miles away from earth, which is higher than the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. Overall, the crew seemed to have experienced an enriched journey where they tried many things and got to learn too.
