SpaceX to launch four tourists on a three-day space trip

Tesla CEO Elon Musk-led space aerospace company SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon at 8:03 p.m. on Wednesday (local time) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SpaceX-developed spaceship became the first to accommodate civilians exclusively to fly into the space and arrive on the Earth’s orbit. A total of four civilians including U.S. billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman will spend three days on board at an altitude of 575 kilometers and a speed of 17,500 miles per hour around the Earth’s orbit. That is, it takes just 1.5 hours to circle the globe.

Four of civilian astronauts were seen on live broadcast to wait for their first ever space travel in a white spacesuit with a relaxed look. They released an interesting plan to sing and play the ukulele while enjoying frozen pizza for snack in space. After their mission is completed, they will land on waters in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. It is the first time in human history that a spaceship exclusive to civilians circles the Earth.

In July, Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson flew 86 kilometers up on a spaceship developed by Virgin Galactic of his own and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, also flew 107 kilometers up in the skies on a rocket self-developed by his company Blue Origin. However, both of them returned to the ground right after experiencing micro gravity for a brief period, accompanied by professional astronauts. By contrast, the SpaceX Crew Dragon reached a higher altitude than the International Space Station (ISS) at 420 kilometers and Hubble Space Telescope at 540 kilometers. As of now, they are rounding the Earth faster than sonic speed by 20 times. 　

Mr. Isaacman’s companions also garner a lot of public interest as he chose them to accompany him on the spaceship. Hayley Arceneaux, a 30-year-old woman who works at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Oklahoma, suffered an osteosarcoma – a type of bone cancer – at the age of 10. She underwent surgery to get some part of her legs filled with metal in the hospital where she currently belongs. She is the first space traveler with a prosthetic appliance in the body. Sian Proctor, 51, a pilot and geoscientist, has dreamed of traveling space since she was a young girl. Her father worked at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Chris Sembroski, 42, an aerospace data engineer who joined the Iraq War in the air force, works at Lockheed Martin – a famous arms and defense technology company. The four crew spent the last six months getting trained on space travel.


Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com