In less than 20 years, SpaceX has gone from upstart to leader in commercial spaceflight. It's hoping for its first civilian orbital flight this September.
Inspiration4: Four civilians to orbit Earth and conduct medical science experimentsImage: Inspiration4/John Kraus
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It would be a tad unfair to lump SpaceX's Inspiration4 under space tourism.
Inspiration4 is more than that — not just because of its destination, but also because of its science objectives and the crew onboard.
Inspirational timeline
The company has gone from announcement to launch in just over six months.
The mission is scheduled for launch on Wednesday, September 15, at 8:02 p.m. EDT (Thursday, September 16 at 00:02 a.m. UTC) from Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Complex 39A was the site, from where the Apollo missions launched in the late 1960s, including Apollo 11, which was the first to successfully land people on the moon.
Raising money for research: The mission comes with an inspirational "gift shop"Image: Inspiration4/John Kraus
SpaceX runs the launch site now, and it aims to take NASA astronauts, including the first woman, back to the moon on its own Starship spacecraft from that site.
The crew on Inspiration4 will spend a few days orbiting Earth and then return with a splash in the ocean off the coast of Florida in the US.
Inspirational aims
The gender balance on Inspiration4 appears to be split 50/50, so that's a good start.
They're not all white, either, and they aim to use the mission to raise $200 million dollars for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the US.
The hospital specializes in researching and treating childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
You might argue that it would be far easier — and sustainable — for SpaceX to just hand over the $200 million, given that it's reportedly charging space tourists $55 million per seat.
But this, as said, is not tourism. It's a civilian space science mission.
And researchers say that some medical experiments are best done in space due to the lack of gravity there.
Inspirational orbit
SpaceX describes the mission on its website as "the world's first all-civilian spaceflight to orbit."
Hyperbole aside, the mission's orbit is indeed impressive. The crew of four will orbit Earth at an average altitude of 575 kilometers (357 miles). That's about 150 km higher than the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits Earth at an average altitude of 450km.
So, let's put than in perspective:
Space is generally considered to start at about 100 km above sea level. So, if you're standing on a street or sitting on a boat, looking up at the sky in daylight, looking as far as you can, and still can't imagine where outer space starts, it's about that far and then half that distance again beyond the ISS.
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Inspirational crew
The other reason why this mission is more than just space tourism is the crew itself. They are officially civilians — not "official" astronauts, who have come through the ranks of some national space agency — but average, everyday people.
Except, they are very special average, everyday people.
Inspiration4 Mission commander Jared Isaacman: No ordinary "civilian"Image: Inspiration4/John Kraus
The mission commander, Jared Isaacman, for instance, is qualified to fly commercial and military aircraft. SpaceX calls Isaacman "an accomplished pilot and adventurer." He's also the founder of a digital payments company called Shift4 — which, by the way, co-runs the mission gift shop.
Hayley Arceneaux hopes the mission will raise $200 million for the hospital that saved her life as a childImage: Inspiration4/John Kraus
Hayley Arceneaux is a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where she herself was treated for a type of bone cancer as a child.
Chris Sembroski may not have been here today if he hadn't lobbied US legislators in favor of commercial spaceflightImage: Inspiration4/John Kraus
Chris Sembroski was a lobbyist for commercial spaceflight in the early days, paving the way for companies like SpaceX (by their own admission). He's seen active duty with the US Air Force and now works in the aerospace industry.
Sian Proctor has space exploration and NASA history in her family treeImage: Inspiration4/John Kraus
And Sian Proctor is a geoscientist. She was born in Guam, where her father worked at a NASA tracking station during the Apollo missions to the moon. SpaceX describes Proctor as an analog astronaut — "a person who conducts activities in simulated space conditions" — and she has completed four analog missions.
Together, the crew will conduct scientific research "designed to advance human health on Earth and during future long-duration spaceflights," says SpaceX.
Inspirational ride
The crew will ride into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket, with a Dragon spacecraft or capsule. SpaceX claims that Dragon is "the only spacecraft currently flying capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth."
Dragon has been fitted a "cupola observation dome," where usually the capsule has a docking port that allows it to connect to the ISS.
The dome will make for stunning views of Earth. But, sadly, it only fits one person at a time (as you can see in SpaceX's tweet).
New inspiration
SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002. It was a time when many super-rich technologists in the US felt that space exploration had run aground. They included Musk, who made his first big money with the online payment platform, PayPal, but also Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Virgin's Richard Branson.
Next stop for SpaceX, the moon. Where else?Image: SpaceX/AP/picture alliance
Musk's company quickly became the first private operation to launch and return cargo from space. It really was quick — just about 10 years from scratch.
It's aiming for that first human return to the moon as part of an international (but largely American) Artemis program. And then beyond that to Mars or wherever. Heck, Musk has even sent one of his Tesla cars around the sun.
So, no matter how you feel about space travel, this first civilian spaceflight is a truly significant beginning.
Space tourism: Out of reach for most Earthlings
Space tourism began in 2001 with Italian-American millionaire Dennis Tito. Decades later, it's still a preserve of the rich and essentially white.
Image: Joe Skipper/REUTERS
An unbeatable record
Dennis Tito was and always will be the first civilian to travel to space. Tito had been a NASA engineer before turning to finance. He had always dreamed of a trip to space and is said to have paid $20 million to have his dream come true. It was hard convincing the big space agencies, but on April 28, 2001, Tito took a ride on a Soyuz rocket and spent six days at the International Space Station.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
In second place: Mark Shuttleworth
So, the name's fitting — shuttle-worth. But beyond that you'll quickly see a bias emerge. The first space tourists were all nerdy engineers… and all but one were MEN. South African Mark Shuttleworth, an internet and software engineer, flew a year after Tito and is celebrated as the first African in space. We're still waiting for the first Black African to make it — not for want of trying, though.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/M. Grachyev
Afronaut: Mandla Maseko
There's never been a Black African astronaut, neither agency-based nor a tourist. Mandla Maseko, a DJ from a township in Pretoria, South Africa, was due to be the first "Afronaut" until he died in a road accident at the age of 30. Maseko had won his chance through a private venture called Ace Apollo Space Academy. Seen as an inspirational figure, he said: "Defy gravity in everything that you do."
Image: Themba Hadebe/AP Photo/picture alliance
Third: Gregory Olsen
The third "official" space tourist was millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen. As Tito and Shuttleworth before him, Olsen bought his ticket through a company called Space Adventures and flew on a Russian Soyuz rocket. Olsen sold his own company, Sensors Unlimited, which under new owners Collins Aerospace is a NASA contractor, to pay his way. And he says he'd sell another firm to do it all again.
Image: Ivan Sekretarev/AP Photo/picture alliance
Fourth: Anousheh Ansari
So, it's not only boys who dream of the stars. Anousheh Ansari dreamed of space as a child as well. An engineer, internet technologist and co-founder of the XPRIZE Foundation, Ansari spent 11 days in space in 2006. She is described as the first astronaut of Iranian descent and the first Muslim woman in space. Her foundation champions itself as having "ignited a new era for commercial spaceflight."
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
Science tourist: Helen Sharman
In 1991, Helen Sharman became the UK's first astronaut. Sharman conducted scientific experiments on the Soviet/Russian space station Mir, so hers was a mission in the traditional sense. We're including Sharman because her mission started as a commercial venture, but the company failed. The Soviets, whose idea it was anyway, paid in an act of bettering relations between them and the West.
Image: Alexander Mokletsov/dpa/Sputnik/picture alliance
The man who went twice: Charles Simonyi
Charles Simonyi is the first space tourist to have taken two trips. The billionaire software engineer first flew in 2007 and then again in 2009. But Simonyi holds other records, too. At the age of 13, he was selected as a junior astronaut in his native Hungary, and he developed the world's first WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) text editor, Bravo. He thinks humans will live in space one day.
Image: Mikhail Metzel/picture-alliance/dpa
Not just gaming around: Richard Garriott
British-American Richard Garriott (left) had an early interest in space travel due to the fact that his dad, Owen, was a NASA astronaut. Family friends and neighbors were astronauts, too. But he became a computer games developer and that's how he paid for his trip in 2008 — but he was also an investor in the space tourism company, Space Adventures. He's known to dress up as a medieval knight.
Image: AP
From circus of the sun to the stars: Guy Laliberte
A native of Quebec, Guy Laliberte is the original creative mind behind the world-famous circus company, Cirque du Soleil ("Circus of the Sun"). He spent 10 days at the International Space Station in 2009 and is the last of the old-school space tourists. Following Laliberte's trip, no tourists flew for over a decade. This shot of a Soyuz capsule returning to Earth was almost the end of it. Until…
Image: AP/NASA/BILL INGALLS
Richard Branson rears his head
Boys and their toys: Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson just had to pip Amazon-man Jeff Bezos at the post. His reward? The US Federal Aviation Administration grounded Branson's SpaceShipTwo for deviating from its flight path as it descended from the edge of space on July 11, 2021. Got to hand it to Branson, though — he's been at it for decades. SpaceShipOne won the Ansari XPRIZE in 2004.
Image: Andres Leighton/AP Photo/picture alliance
Just another dreamer: Jeff Bezos
Branson and Bezos (in hat) are competitors. They're also in a private space travel clique with common goals and would get nowhere without each other — or early test pilots Brian Binnie and Mike Melvill and investors like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen or Peter Diamandis, co-founder of Space Adventures and XPRIZE. On July 20, 2021, Bezos and three others took a suborbital flight. Will you be next?
Image: Blue Origin/Anadolu Agency/picture alliance
