Why in the news?
- Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced on September 3, 2021 that ‘Inspiration4’, its first all-civilian, non-governmental spaceflight, is on track for launch on September 15.
- The Crew Dragon spacecraft is set to be launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the US.
Four private citizens
- It will take a group of four private citizens into space for three days.
- All four seats on the spacecraft have been purchased by US billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of the fintech company Shift4 Payments.
Objective
- The Inspiration4 mission involves circling the Earth for three days, and then splashing down into the Atlantic Ocean.
- Inspiration4 will orbit the Earth at 575km, higher than the International Space Station (408km) and the Hubble space telescope (547km).
Importance
- The journey will present an opportunity for collecting large amounts of health data that will aid in planning future crewed space missions.
(Source: Indian Express)
