It is the beginning of a new space age.
Four civilians – a billionaire, a medical assistant, an aerospace worker, and an educator and trained pilot – will take off into space on Wednesday evening.
The mission with the title Inspiration4, will be the first to send a purely civilian crew into orbit.
On the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, four private individuals sit in a specially modified Crew Dragon capsule, waiting to orbit the earth for three days, the first time a purely civilian crew has orbited the planet.
Instead of just climbing to the edge of space and returning to landing in less than an hour, as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin recently did, Inspiration4 will orbit Earth and do so in a higher orbit than the International Space Station.
What does this mean for the future of civil space travel? Will space become the next ultimate human amusement park?
NASA Director Phil McAlister weighs in after more than 20 years in the space industry.
How much does it cost to go into space?
It depends, says McAlister. For a trip on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s New Shepard, seats typically cost $ 250,000 to $ 500,000.
►Virgin Galactic’s last flight: The FAA grounds Virgin Galactic while investigating the July 11th space flight with Richard Branson
“These are suborbital transportation systems. They’re about a 15-minute drive away and they just barely touch the edge of space and then come back down. They don’t go into orbit,” says McAlister.
Inspiration4’s mission is different.
Civilians’ spacecraft will go into orbit and orbit the earth for three days, much like an orbital space flight required for astronauts to get to the International Space Station.
►The Inspiration4 Mission: No professional astronauts: SpaceX will put the first all-civilian crew into orbit tonight
It’s all paid for by Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire who dropped out of school and is promoting the flight as a massive fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Issacman, a pilot qualified to fly commercial and military jets, signed a contract with SpaceX for the mission in late 2020.
Neither does he say how much he will pay SpaceX to launch, though Isaacman said it was far less than the $ 200 million he hopes to raise for St. Jude.
For NASA astronauts, McAlister says, orbital voyages can cost $ 58 million, based on averages calculated from commercial contracts with SpaceX and Boeing.
While $ 58 million may seem like a lot, it’s actually a great bargain for NASA.
After the shutdown of its space shuttle, NASA had to pay Russia around $ 80 million for each seat on the Russian Soyuz probe.
“We wanted to end this dependency and make sure we had US capability to transport our astronauts,” says McAlister. “The other goal that was specifically part of the program was to provide a commercial ability to fly non-NASA customers into space.”
The privatization of space by American companies
This initiative to partner public and private resources for American space exploration took years.
NASA has been working with SpaceX and Boeing on their systems for 10 years, transferring knowledge from more than 60 years of manned spaceflight and innovation in low earth orbit.
“In those 60 years only about 600 people have flown into space and the vast majority of them have been government astronauts. I think over the next 60 years that number will increase dramatically, and the vast majority of them are” private individuals “says McAlister.
►Inspiration4 Mission makes history: Cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux becomes the youngest American in space with the launch of SpaceX
NASA’s goal is to eventually decommission the International Space Station and allow companies to build their own space stations with the latest technological designs that require less maintenance.
In the future, astronauts could only rent seats in space shuttles and spend the night in space stations, just as business travelers buy airline tickets and sleep in hotels.
“If you remember when air travel first came on the market, it was very expensive and only for the very rich who could afford it. And then entrepreneurs came into the market, not everyone, but most people can afford a flight from New York to California, “says McAlister.” I hope the same thing happens with human space transportation. “
What would a trip into space look like?
Boarding a spaceship definitely wouldn’t be as easy as going through an airport check-in process. Inspiration4 participants spent months training, understanding spacecraft systems, and preparing for the physical toll of space.
The billionaire Isaacman includes:
►Hayley Arceneaux, medical assistant at St. Jude. As a child she was treated in hospital for bone cancer herself.
►Chris Sembroski, a Seattle aerospace worker selected from 72,000 donations to St. Jude.
►Sian Proctor, an educator and trained pilot who was a 2009 finalist in NASA’s astronaut class.
SpaceX and Isaacman introduced their project to the world in a TV ad that aired during the Super Bowl in February that asked people to apply for the mission.
Once in orbit, the Inspiration4 crew will become a series of Experiments Contribute to health research, such as taking blood samples and measuring sleep activity.
In a SpaceX press Briefing, SpaceX Director Benji Reed outlines his vision: “We want to make life multiplanetar, and that means bringing millions of people into space.”
The flight’s health data will be shared with research institutes and medical schools to better understand how space is affecting the human body and what we can do to make space a potential travel (or living) destination.
McAlister also envisions that the crew will spend much of their time just looking out the window and staring in awe at the curvature of the earth and the thin blue line of atmosphere that surrounds them.
“You go up there and see the earth, the whole earth from space, and there are no borders. There are no limits and you feel a connection with humanity that you didn’t necessarily feel before, ”says McAlister. “You come back with a better appreciation for our home planet.”
Florida Day helped. Michelle Shen is a money and tech digital reporter for USATODAY. You can reach her at @ michelle_shen10 on Twitter.
