Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives. The three-day orbital voyage of the all-civilian crew will be a historic milestone for human spaceflight
SpaceX will launch its first all-civilian crew on a three-day journey around the Earth in what will be a historic step for private space travel. The private spaceflight company will launch the Inspiration4 crew, a team of four private citizens, on a veteran Falcon 9 rocket it calls B1062. The previously flown rocket is scheduled to blast off from Pad 39A and Kennedy Space Center here in Florida tonight (Sept.15) during a five-hour window that opens at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 Sept.16 GMT). You can watch the launch live here and on the Space.com homepage starting at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT), courtesy of SpaceX. Netflix will also stream a live webcast of the launch countdown on YouTube beginning one hour before liftoff, and you can watch that live here. Officials at the 45th Weather Squadron have said that the weather here at the Cape will likely be good on launch day, with an 80% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff. If the mission is unable to get off the ground on Wednesday night, the next attempt will be Thursday (Sept.16) at 8:05 p.m. EDT (0005 Sept.17 GMT). Today’s flight will mark the 23rd Falcon 9 mission for SpaceX so far in 2021, and it’s the second launch within a week. (The company sent 51 of its own Starlink internet satellites into space atop a different Falcon 9 rocket from its West Coast facilities on Monday, Sept.13.) In addition, the flight marks the fourth crewed mission for SpaceX, but the first to carry private citizens as opposed to professionally trained astronauts. The Inspiration4 mission is part of a massive fundraising effort to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. To that end, billionaire and founder of Shift4 Payments, Jared Isaacman, purchased the flight on one of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, donating two of the seats to St.
