A few dozen sunrises were enough for the crew of Inspiration4, which returned to Earth nearly three days after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center becoming the first all-civilian crew to launch into orbit.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience and its four passengers splashed down at 7:06 p.m. in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
Weather remained calm as the deorbit maneuvers ran like clockwork with the final descent taking less than an hour.
“Thanks so much SpaceX. It was a heck of a ride for us,” said mission commander Jared Issacman. “We’re just getting started.”
Even though this is not a NASA mission, SpaceX worked with the Coast Guard to ensure the recovery zone was clear of public vessels, something that was an issue on the first Crew Dragon landing with passengers in 2020. The spacecraft was hoisted onto the deck of a recovery vessel, where the crew exited the spacecraft before flying back by helicopter to Kennedy Space Center.
Isaacman along with Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Chris Sembroski are only the fourth set of passengers to fly on a Crew Dragon, and were the first to land in the Atlantic. The three previous missions, all ferrying NASA astronauts from the International Space Station, landed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Just before deorbit burn, video from SpaceX showed Sembroski enjoying the film “Spaceballs” on his tablet.
“That is great. They’re just relaxing, very nice and comfortable inside Dragon,” said SpaceX commentator Andy Tran.
They spent the first two days of their voyage orbiting up to 365 miles altitude at 17,500 mph, which meant the crew was able to witness about 15 sunrises and sunsets a day.
On Saturday morning, the spacecraft descended to 226 miles altitude to line up its ground track with the planned landing site.
At 5:32 a.m. the forward hatch closed, so no more views from the Dragon’s newly installed cupola window, the largest continuous window that’s ever been put into space.
During the flight, the space tourists mixed enjoyment with science and the business of trying to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Isaacman, 38, the billionaire founder and CEO of credit card processing company Shift4 Payments, paid SpaceX an undisclosed sum and is footing the bill for his three crewmates who became the first civilian passengers for Crew Dragon.
Arcenaux, 29, was chosen as a pediatric cancer survivor who was treated at, and now works at St. Jude. The ticket for Sembroski, 42, came through a lottery from the more than 7,200 people who donated to St. Jude during a fundraising campaign that kicked off with a Super Bowl commercial. Procter, 51, also earned her passage through a competition among entrepreneurs who used social media to stump for their chances for a ride to space.
Isaacman said he was donating the first $100 million of a stated goal of raising $200 million for the hospital based in Memphis, Tennessee, which is known for battling childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. By Saturday the total had climbed to more than $150 million, but then Elon Musk chimed in via Twitter saying, “Count me in for $50M.”
Arcenaux replied, “This brings tears to my eyes.”
Fundraising will continue as an online auction that will last through November at stjude.org/inspiration4 for items flown into space such as mission jackets with artwork from St. Jude patients and the crew members, Montblanc brand pens and stationary used by the crew, a signed copy of the TIME magazine that had a cover story on Inspiration4 and a ukulele played by Sembroski during the flight.
During their time in space, the crew performed several experiments to take advantage of the higher-than-normal altitude for a low-Earth-orbit mission, about 100 miles farther away than the International Space Station. They also got calls from actor Tom Cruise and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, plus answered questions from pediatric patients of St. Jude.
“We’ll reflect back on everything when we come back, and I think we’re not done once we do splashdown either,” Issacman said before the launch. “I know that we want to continue to be able to inspire people throughout everything that we’ve done in space and throughout this entire year.”
