SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission will orbit Earth a few hours from now for a three-day trip.
The spacecraft will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:02 pm ET on Wednesday, Livemint said.
Once launched, it will soar to an altitude of 575 kilometers - just above where the Hubble Space Telescope currently sits.
Inspiration4's mission "represents a new era for human space flight and exploration," according to the expedition's sponsor.
But how did this space flight eventuate?
Inspiration4 Crew: Here Are The Crew
Science Times previously reported that the flight has a private benefactor - 38-year-old Jared Isaacman, an American entrepreneur who started the payment-processing company Shift4 Payments when he was 16.
Our crew is continuing final preparations for launch and teams are targeting no earlier than 8:00 p.m. ET on September 15 for liftoff of #Inspiration4.
— Inspiration4 (@inspiration4x) September 10, 2021
SpaceX and Inspiration4 will narrow down the launch window to five hours approximately three days before liftoff. pic.twitter.com/l6zmkGk6Zo
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Isaacman took one of the four seats and has offered another seat to a woman working as a physician's assistant at St Jude Hospital.
Hayley Arceneaux, the 29-year-old physician's assistant, is the youngest American wearing a prosthesis to have flown into space.
She was diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 10 and was able to survive such sickness. She had most of her left thigh bone replaced with a titanium rod. Arceneaux wears a prosthesis. Hence, experts adjusted her SpaceX capsule seat to accommodate her knee.
The other two seats are allocated to contest winners. Data engineer Chris Sembroski, 42, a former Air Force member, and Geoscience professor and pilot Sian Proctor, 51, are the other members of the crew.
Inspiration4 Crew to Hop in SpaceX's Crew Dragon For the Flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - MAY 30: In this NASA handout image, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen before launch on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Inspiration4 crew will be in SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will detach from the Falcon 9 rocket - a reusable rocket manufactured by SpaceX.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft, sitting at 8.1 meters (26.6 feet) high and 4 meters (13.1 feet) in diameter, s the same one NASA used to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) last year.
It has two windows and a newly installed glass dome. There are no sleeping compartments or workstations, and a curtain covers the toilet.
The Inspiration4 crew will take blood samples and conduct other medical research once they're on the air.
Cost of Inspiration4 Mission
The joyride cost has not been disclosed. However, Quartz claimed the mission's cost is around $250 million if Isaacman pays NASA prices. But he might have the discounted prince since the rocket and the space capsule assigned to the mission have flown before for NASA and are being reused.
The mission will also raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. The project organizers claim to have raised $128 million so far, targeting $200 million.
The same Quartz article said NASA required SpaceX to develop its Crew Dragon so that the risk of losing a crew on board would be a probability of less than one in 270 compared to Space Shuttle's one in 90.
RELATED ARTICLE: SpaceX to Reuse Dragon Spacecraft Fleet After Rocket Booster from NASA Crew-1 'Leaned'
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