TEXAS: SpaceX Inspiration4 mission delivers first magical images from orbit

TEXAS: The crew of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, which departed Earth
on Wednesday, has spent a full day in space, sleeping, eating and, strangely, even betting on sports matches. But besides a
teaser video of the transparent cupola outfitted on
the Crew Dragon’s nose, we haven’t seen too much from inside the
cramped confines their temporary orbital home. 

Thankfully,
images from the crew’s first day in orbit have arrived to give us a glimpse of
life in the Dragon.

The
images, posted to the Inspiration4 twitter account on Thursday evening, show
the crew members making full use of the cupola, with mission specialist Chris
Sembroski keenly focusing his camera from within the cupola and medical officer
Hayley Arceneaux seemingly floating upward toward the Earth. 

Not sure
how these photos are free of happy tears, to be honest. I feel like I would be
bawling my eyes out floating around in the cupola.  

The
mission, the first to feature a crew composed entirely of private citizens, was
bankrolled by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, also features Sian
Proctor, geology professor and the fourth African American woman in space, who
serves as the mission pilot.

The Crew
Dragon orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 364 miles (585 kilometers),
which is the furthest humans have traveled since the STS-103 flight of the
Space Shuttle in 1999. The team will be exposed to higher levels of radiation
than the astronauts stationed in the International Space Station or China’s
Tiangong space station and their health is being constantly monitored so
scientists and researchers can learn more about the effects of spaceflight on
“ordinary” humans (rather than those superhuman astronauts).

You can
expect to see plenty more from “ordinary citizens” in the future,
too. In January 2022, SpaceX plans to send four people to the International
Space Station in collaboration with Axiom Space, and Tom Cruise is scheduled to
fly to the station for a movie project some time next year.