SpaceX Announces First Wholly CivilIan Crewed Space Mission
SpaceX: World’s First All-Civilian Mission to Space Will Usher in New Era of Commercial Space Exploration
“Plans for the world’s first all-civilian mission to space were announced today from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. The mission is being targeted for the fourth quarter of this year and will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 37-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments [NYSE:FOUR] and an accomplished pilot. Named Inspiration4 in recognition of the four-person crew’s mission to inspire support for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® and send a humanitarian message of possibility, the journey represents a new era for human spaceflight and exploration. Isaacman is donating the three mission seats alongside him to crew members who will be selected to represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.”
Ford v. Ferrari–in Space!, by acting Chief of Staff Bhavya Lal, Issues, June 2020
” … this seems to be a victory for both the American taxpayer and the nation’s space program. SpaceX intends to take not only NASA astronauts to the ISS but also private spaceflight participants, leveraging government investment to commercialize its now-proven launch services.”
Personal observation: no kidding. @ElonMusk @SpaceX and the #Inspiration4 people have thought this out – not only in terms of finance but also how to engage a vast audience and generate significant inspiration and resources that can affect real people in their daily lives.
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 1, 2021
Wow. Just. Wow. And you couldn’t pick a better organization than St. Jude Hospital.
Spacecraft: C207 “Resilience” (Crew-1)
This joins Crew Dragon missions for Axiom Space (AX-1, …), Space Adventures, and the #dearMoon Starship circumlunar mission.
Does this mean SpaceX has beaten both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin in sending tourists to space?
The problem I am seeing is lots of backlash about spending tens of millions on this type of thing (even in the name of charity) while there are poor and starving here on Earth. I know the same old complaint that I have heard and has frustrated me since I was a kid but it is building again. Also there are a large number of environmental concerns about too many rocket launches and satellites as a more general complaint. These are public relations things that new space will have to face.
Did you even read the release? Seriously. The sponsor is donating 100 MILLION DOLLARS to St Judes and wants raise ANOTHER 100 MILLION DOLLARS so that they can offer medical services AT NO COST.
Yes, I am not criticizing the project in any way. I am making the point that there is a LOT of criticism of money being spent on commercial spaceflight (especially last week’s Axiom announcement). As well I can see the complaints that the donator should have donated the money directly to Earthly causes since this flight has to be paid for. So we need to be prepared to explain and defend commercial/tourist spaceflight such as this.
Dude, St. Judes is ON EARTH it is an EARTHLY CAUSE. They are dedicated to providing FREE MEDICAL CARE to people who LIVE ON EARTH.
Yes, and IMO St. Jude is one of the best charities going. Kudos to the late Danny Thomas for his philanthropic efforts. Stand-up guy.
Channeling Elon musk, when presented with the idea: “why not?”
Decisions at SX are among the stunning changes brought to a moribund industry.
When I saw this in the NYTimes this morning, for instance, as I have so often, wondered how SX would handle a similar situation (The issue here is the green run):
“ engineers within the agency have been pushing NASA and Boeing leadership to conduct a second test to lower the risk of a failure during launch.”
I picture a couple of engineers at SpaceX, looking out a window, arms folded: “ looks like we need to do it again“. No management layers, no emails, just a little obvious common sense. Imagining a decision tree at Boeing is beyond my ability.