The First All-Civilian Team of Astronauts Is Headed to Orbit. Here ’s What to Know About the Inspiration4 Mission

The prospect of space travel will feel much different after the Inspiration4 mission—the first orbital mission with an all-civilian crew—launches this fall. Once that happens, the history of human spaceflight will instantly be divided into two eras. There will have been the six decades after the first human circled above the Earth in 1961, when orbital space was mostly a realm solely for nation-states and their hand-picked astronauts. And then there will be the post-2021 era following Inspiration4, when space travel will come definitively within the grasp of private corporations and citizens—an era in which, for the right price, anyone can look down at our blue marble from orbit. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] It’s hard to say what that transition will mean—whether space travel and its benefits will be democratized across society, or come to be exploited solely by corporations and the uber-wealthy. For now, the answer may be a little of both. After two billionaires launched themselves into space earlier this year mostly for their own benefit, a third, Jared Isaacman, is set to bring three ordinary folks along with him high into orbit in a venture structured to raise money and awareness for research into childhood cancer. Here’s what to know about the historic Inspiration4 mission. What are the origins of the Inspiration4 mission? The groundwork that led to Inspiration4 was laid more than two decades ago. The market for priva...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Space Special Project Source Type: news