Are you ready to see history happen this week? SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is perhaps the strangest mission into space we’ve ever seen. It consists of four people who are — technically — not really qualified to be there. They’re not astronauts, though they have received some training, and they’re going to spend three days in orbit before the SpaceX capsule they’re travelling in brings them back to Earth.
Inspiration4 the future
The mission kicks off on 15 September (hey, that’s today!) at around 20h02 Eastern Time (oh, that’s 02h02 on 16 September, here in SA), with a little leeway for optimal launch conditions. There are a few ways to watch the event, with the main one being via SpaceX’s YouTube channel (though we’ve also embedded the link you’ll need to visit above).
The live stream does take place in the very early hours of tomorrow morning, but there’s a little pre-event taking place if you’d like to start watching from 21h45, right up until the Inspiration4 launch. The event will introduce Jared Isaacman, the billionaire funding this whole thing, as well as Hayley Arceneaux, a physicians assistant at St. Jude children’s hospital, which is getting a little funding from the event, competition winner Sian Proctor and then a chap named Christopher Sembroski, who was given his seat by a friend who won a charity raffle. That’s… a pretty good friend.
So yes, long story short, SpaceX is about to send four mostly-unqualified civilians into (actual) space for three days and expects its rockets and capsules to automatically perform well enough to bring the four travellers home safely. That’s… quite a giant leap in terms of going to space, yeah? Check it out this evening and early tomorrow morning.