Inspiration4 Mission

In News 

Recently, the Inspiration4 Mission was launched by SpaceX.

About Inspiration4 Mission 

• It was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and crew aboard a Crew Dragon capsule and SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for an Earth-orbiting mission. 
• It is the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit. 
  • It is largely made up of civilians with no professional space experience, although the crew has undergone basic training.
  • It will orbit the Earth at 575km, higher than the International Space Station (408km) and the Hubble space telescope (547km). 
    • This will be the farthest distance travelled by a crewed mission since 2009, when astronauts last went to repair the Hubble.
• Inspiration4 is the third space flight by a billionaire in 2021. 
  • The other two — both suborbital missions — were the flight of Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and company employees aboard the Unity 22 mission on July 11, and the flight of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers (including noted aviator Wally Funk) flew aboard a New Shepard spacecraft on July 20.

Why is the journey significant?

• The journey will present an opportunity for collecting large amounts of health data that will aid in planning future crewed space missions.
  • They will collect data on ECG (electrocardiograph) activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation, cabin noise and light intensity, which will help in assessing behavioural and cognitive changes over the journey.
• It will raise millions for the Tennessee-based St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a paediatric treatment and research facility that focuses on children’s catastrophic diseases, particularly leukaemia and other cancers.

Source: IE