SpaceX Crew Dragon, Falcon 9 roll out to the pad for historic Inspiration4 launch
On the morning of September 12th, SpaceX rolled the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft that will support the world's first fully private orbital spaceflight to the launch pad they'll soon lift off from.
Scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) 8pm EDT on Wednesday, September 15th (02:00 UTC 16 Sept), the mission – deemed Inspiration4 by the billionaire funding it – will be both SpaceX and the world's first crewed orbital spaceflight without a single professional astronaut aboard. Instead, billionaire Shift4 found Jared Isaacman, Ph.D. geologist and science communicator Sian Proctor, engineer Christopher Sembroski (standing in for a friend), and physician's assistant and childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux will be along for the ride.
SpaceX is targeting a five-hour launch window on Wednesday, September 15, opening at 8:02 p.m. EDT (Thursday, September 16 at 00:02 UTC) for launch of the Inspiration4 mission – the world's first all-civilian human spaceflight to orbit – aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Approximately three days after liftoff, Dragon and the Inspiration4 crew will return to Earth and splash down at one of several possible landing sites off the Florida coast.
SpaceX's webcast for launch of the Inspiration4 mission will go live ~4 hours before liftoff.
[*] YouTube link to SpaceX Inspiration4 Launch.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @06:25AM (1 child)
Your web site certificate expired on 2021-09-15 03:29:09 GMT
Am I the only customer?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday September 15 2021, @06:32AM
(Score: 1) by toph on Wednesday September 15 2021, @03:10PM (2 children)
The second part of this story appears to be about the recent Starlink launch, not Inspiration4.
Dragon doesn't use fairing halves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @04:04PM (1 child)
SpaceX isn't launching humans into orbit on a 9x "flight proven" booster?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @10:24PM
Not 9x, no. I think this will be the third flight for this booster. It previously flew two GPS launches.
(Score: 2) by esperto123 on Wednesday September 15 2021, @04:40PM (5 children)
The launch is from florida, the barge is stationed in the atlantic ocean, not the pacific.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 15 2021, @05:14PM (2 children)
Florida is a peninsula. Thus it must border both atlantic and pacific.
(ducks, hides under desk!)
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday September 15 2021, @07:31PM (1 child)
ducks, hides under desk!
As well you should, because now all the Earth's peninsulas are busy contorting themselves in to proper position, and the quakes are massive. Seriously? You had one wish left and that had to be it, or was it a slip of the tongue? Genies. They're just not worth it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 15 2021, @07:55PM
The Earth quacks will only spread out across the flat surface of the earth to the edges.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @05:29PM (1 child)
Takyon's submission is about today's Inspiration 4 flight. Upstart is talking about the Starlink 2-1 launch two days ago. Why unrelated launches were combined into a single summary is a mystery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @05:33PM
Somebody fixed the summary.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:49PM (2 children)
Yet another "historic" flight of something with no real purpose, or to lay down his marker in the billionaire bus ride race?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @10:20PM (1 child)
It is being run as a charity fundraiser for cancer research at St Jude's Hospital. Jared Isaacman is paying for the flight and also donated $100 million to St Judes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:42AM
So, basically both things then.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:05AM (3 children)
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1438292412820979712 [twitter.com]
They are alive and well so far.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:22AM (2 children)
Somebody brought a stuffed animal along. :)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:37AM (1 child)
https://giftshop.stjude.org/inspiration4-zero-gravity-indicator-replica-space-puppy/214500000.html [stjude.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @05:24AM
That is adorable. And sold out. Good. That means there is public interest, so mission accomplished.