SpaceX Inspiration4's all civilian crew makes splashdown after orbiting Earth for 3 days

Creating a new history, the Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX Inspiration4 with four 'non-astronauts' onboard has finally landed on earth. According to SpaceX, the spacecraft splashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday night further marking the first all-civilian human space flight into orbit. 

The Dragon spacecraft was launched on September 15 at 8:00 PM from the Kennedy Space Centre after which it landed on Saturday in the Atlantic ocean off coast Florida. The four astronauts present in the spacecraft included billionaire Jared Isaacman followed by a health care worker Hayley Arceneaux, a Black female astronaut Dr Sian Proctor and a data engineer Chris Sembroski. A video was also shared by SpaceX on their official Twitter handle showing the historic landing at the Atlantic Ocean. Also, several images were shared by Inspiration4. 

Sharing a video from the splashdown, they wrote, "Splashdown! Welcome back to planet Earth." With the landing, the mission achieved several historical achievements including the onboard of the youngest American in space followed by the first person to fly into space with a prosthetic, the largest contiguous window in space, the farthest flight for human spaceflight, and many more. 

Launch of Inspiration4 Mission

It is worth noting that the Inspiration4 mission was funded by one of the astronauts, Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of payment processor Shift4 Payments Inc. who also served as a mission commander. The flight was promoted as a massive fundraising initiative for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thereafter, the mission aimed to raise at least 200 million US dollars. According to the official sources, the mission has till now raised to 154 million US dollars and still counting.

Earlier, the launch which took place on 15 September was live-streamed on Netflix as one of its docuseries. It has already released four episodes showing the crew members training till their launch. The next final episode including the launch, mission as well as return to earth will be streamed on September 30, 2021. 

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's SpaceX is planning its next private trip where a retired NASA astronaut will escort three wealthy businessmen to the space station for a weeklong visit.

Image: Twitter/@SpaceX/@Inspiration4