Inspiration4 Makes Space History With First-Ever All-Civilian Orbital Launch

In the end, the camping trip up the flank of Mt. Rainier that the Inspiration4 crew made back in April may have done more than anything else to prepare them for tonight’s successful launch into Earth orbit, at 8:02 p.m. ET from pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Even the day before the launch, at a T-minus-27-hour press conference, they were still talking about the experience and what it taught them. Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and who tonight became the first person to fly in space with a prosthetic—a rod in place of her left femur, which she lost to childhood cancer—called the hike the most daunting and transformative part of the training, one that forged powerful bonds among the all-civilian crew members. “It was 10 hours of hiking and three days of camping with four people in small tents,” she said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Chris Sembroski, 41, an engineer at Lockheed Martin in Everett, Washington, sees the three days the crew will spend in orbit before their Saturday splashdown as, in some ways, nothing more than an extension of the Mr. Rainier trip. “It will be like camping with your three closest friends in a van for three days,” he said. Sembroski even packed a ukulele for the journey, which he will use to perform a song from space as part of the mission’s goal of raising $200 million for St. Jude. More: Watch TIME Studios’ Countdow...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Space Source Type: news