WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2021) SpaceX's first all-civilian crew, Inspiration4, successfully returned to Earth on Saturday after spending three days in space.
"Splashdown! Welcome back to planet Earth, @Inspiration4x!" SpaceX said on Twitter, releasing a video of the capsule's descent and water landing off Florida's coast.
The four private astronauts made the successful splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at around 07:06 p.m. eastern time (23:06 GMT) on Saturday.
"Happy. Healthy. Home. Welcome back to Earth, @ArceneauxHayley, @rookisaacman, @DrSianProctor, and @ChrisSembroski!" Inspiration4 said on its official Twitter page.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft with the Inspiration4 crew was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, September 15, using the Falcon 9 rocket. It was launched into a 360-mile orbit, higher than the International Space Station (ISS) which orbits the Earth at an average altitude of approximately 250 miles.
The crew of the Inspiration4 mission, which raised money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, included four US citizens: businessman Jared Isaacman, researcher and former NASA astronaut candidate Sian Proctor, physician assistant and cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux and US Air Force veteran Christopher Sembroski who is a data engineer at Lockheed Martin. They conducted scientific research during their three days in space.
The mission was the world's first all-civilian human spaceflight to orbit and the farthest human spaceflight since the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions.
