Inspiratin - Expected to Launch Today
takyon writes:
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.
upstart writes:
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.
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