SpaceX launched 4 amateurs on private Earth-circling trip

WHY IN THE NEWS?

SpaceX launched four amateurs on its first ever private flight.

About:

• SpaceX first ever “Earth-circling trip” was started onboarding two contest winners, a health care worker as well as their rich sponsor.
• This is the most ambitious leap in space tourism.
• This was the first time any rocket blasted off toward orbit with an all-amateur crew and no professional astronauts.
• Two men and two women are looking forward to spend three days on Dragon capsule circling the world.
• They will be circling the Earth on an unusually high orbit at 160 km higher than the International Space Station.
• Their flight will splash down off the Florida coast by September 19th
• Dragon capsule aimed for an altitude of 575 km, beyond the Hubble Space Telescope.

Who is leading the flight?

Jared Isaacman is leading the flight, who made his fortune with the payment-processing company. Isaacman is the third billionaire to launch so far, following the brief space-skimming flights of Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos in July 2021. Apart from this, Arceneaux is flying who is set to become the youngest American in space as well as the first person with a prosthesis, a titanium rod in her left leg, to travel space.

Space Tourism

This flight is the first entry in the competition for space tourism dollars by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer, space transportation services & communications company. It is headquartered in Hawthorne, California. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the objective of reducing space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX manufactures Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, rocket engines, crew spacecraft, Dragon cargo, and Starlink communications satellites.