SpaceX Updates: Inspiration4 Crew News Tracker - The New York Times

After a successful launch on Wednesday, the first space crew with no professional astronauts aboard is circling Earth.

More people are in space right now than ever before.

The crew will spend 3 days aboard a capsule slightly bigger than a minivan.

The crew of the Inspiration4 mission is flying safely around Earth, SpaceX said in a Twitter update Wednesday afternoon.

The @Inspiration4x crew is healthy, happy, and resting comfortably.

But the altitude that they are orbiting at is not as unusual as some space commentators, including me, have said.

Andy Tran, a production supervisor for SpaceX, spoke during a livestream Tuesday covering the launch of the Inspiration4 mission: “They’re going to be higher than the International Space Station, higher than the Hubble Telescope, honestly higher than any humans other than those who went to the moon.”.

The Inspiration4 crew is as far as 366 miles above Earth, which is more than 100 miles higher than the International Space Station.

Astronauts on both missions traveled farther from Earth than the crew members of Inspiration4.

Unlike with NASA missions, there is little information about the Inspiration4 crew.

SpaceX reported on Twitter that the crew members are “healthy, happy and resting comfortably,” that they had performed the first round of scientific research, and that they had eaten a couple of meals and slept.

SpaceX also tweeted a photograph of the glass dome at the top of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, although there was no one inside it at the time.

As private space travelers and not NASA employees, the SpaceX crew can choose to maintain a veil of privacy around their activities.

It is also possible that the crew could participate in live public broadcasts from space, but no plans have been announced yet.

— Kenneth Chang.

The four-person crew of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 raised the number of people in space to 14, edging out a record set in 2009 when 13 people lived on the International Space Station after the space shuttle Endeavour docked there.

And Expedition 65, from NASA, launched in April with a team of seven, who are currently at the space station.

The “Commander & Benefactor” of the Inspiration4 is Jared Isaacman, a high school dropout who became a billionaire founder of a payments processing company.

As those costs go down, the number of people who are in space will go up, he said.

“With private launches, the number of people who can go to space will continue to increase.”.

“It’s still a millionaire’s game, but at least you don’t have to be a superpower country,” he said.

The Crew Dragon is a gumdrop-shaped capsule — an upgraded version of SpaceX’s original Dragon capsule, which has been used many times to carry cargo.

The capsule has more interior space than a minivan, but less than a studio apartment.

So far, NASA’s missions in Crew Dragon have spent no more than about a day orbiting the planet before docking with the space station.

Sembroski said during Tuesday’s news conference.

The crew members will be able to pull out sleeping bags “and strap yourself in so you don’t float into each other during the middle of the night,” he said.

Sembroski said.

He said they had received good tips from NASA astronauts who previously traveled to space in the capsule.

Sembroski said.

Arceneaux said during a taste test that she didn’t think she’d eat much in space.

— Kenneth Chang.

And the Inspiration4 crew members, in collaboration with Spotify, put one together for their tour through Earth’s orbit.

Each of the four crew members contributed 10 songs.

Proctor enthusiastically said she wanted to take that to space on her iPhone.

If you are curious about the musical tastes of the Inspiration4 crew members, here is the full list of songs on their official Spotify playlist:.

— Kenneth Chang.

For most of the mission, if nothing goes wrong, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will operate autonomously with the assistance of SpaceX’s mission control at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.

— Kenneth Chang.

— Kenneth Chang.

Isaacman named the four Crew Dragon seats to reflect positive aspects of humanity: leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.

Isaacman said during a news conference on Tuesday, “and chose to do that through an interesting crew selection process.”.

— Kenneth Chang.

Isaacman said he wanted it to be more than an extraterrestrial jaunt for rich people like him.

“If you’re going to accomplish all those great things out in space, all that progress, then you have an obligation to do some considerable good here on Earth, like making sure you conquer childhood cancer along the way,” he said.

— Kenneth Chang

— Kenneth Chang

She said that in 2009, she was among 47 finalists whom NASA selected from 3,500 applications

— Kenneth Chang

— Kenneth Chang

He also volunteered for ProSpace, a nonprofit advocacy group that pushed to open space to more people

— Kenneth Chang