From Civilians to Astronauts: How the Inspiration4 Crew Trained to Go to Space

If you want to go to space, Inspiration4 commander Jared Issacman believes, it helps to climb a mountain first, in order to bond as a group over a shared physical struggle. Any mountain will do, really, but for the crew of Inspiration4—the first all-civilian team bound for orbital space, set to fly aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft next month—it was Mt. Rainier, the 14,100-ft. volcanic peak in western Washington State. “I wanted them to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” says Isaacman, 39, “because not everything about space will be comfortable.” If that’s what he wanted, that’s what he got. There was the cloud bank that followed the crew the entire way up their trek to their target spot at the 10,000-ft. elevation point on the flank of the mountain. There was the cutting cold and the blowing snow and the frozen ham and cheese sandwiches that greeted them when they opened their packs. And there was the constant plodding over the course of their two-night, three-day stay as well. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] John Kraus—Inspiration4The Inspiration4 crew returns from Camp Muir on Mount Rainier on May 3, 2021. “My legs were on fire,” says Chris Sembroski, 41, an aerospace engineer at Lockheed Martin in Everett, Washington in everyday life and the payload specialist for Inspiration4. “I just had to keep breathing.” In the six decades that human beings have been flying in s...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Space Special Project Source Type: news