FLORIDA: The quartet of newly minted citizen astronauts comprising the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission safely splashed down in the Atlantic off Florida’s coast on Saturday, completing a three-day flight of the first all-civilian crew ever launched into Earth orbit.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, parachuted into calm seas around 7 p.m. EDT, shortly before sunset, after an automated re-entry descent, SpaceX showed during a live webcast shown on its YouTube channel.
The return from orbit followed a plunge through Earth’s atmosphere generating frictional heat that sent temperatures surrounding the outside of the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The astronauts’ flight suits, fitted to special ventilation systems, were designed to keep them cool if the cabin heated up.
Applause was heard from the SpaceX flight control center in suburban Los Angeles as the first parachutes were seen deploying, slowing the capsule’s descent to about 15 miles per hour (24.14 kilometers per hour) before splashdown, and again as the craft hit the water.
SpaceX recovery boats were shown approaching the water-proof Crew Dragon as it bobbed upright in the ocean, while retrieval teams clambered over the capsule, attaching rigging before hoisting it out of the water. The crew members will be removed from the capsule once it has been placed safely on the floating recovery vessel.
After undergoing medical checks at sea, the four amateur astronauts will be flown by helicopter back to Cape Canaveral to be reunited with loved ones, SpaceX said.
Camera shots from inside the cabin showed them sitting calmly strapped into their seats.
SpaceX, the private rocketry company founded by Tesla Inc. electric automaker CEO Elon Musk, supplied the spacecraft, launched it from Florida and flew it from the company’s suburban Los Angeles headquarters.
The Inspiration4 team blasted off on Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral atop one of SpaceX’s two-stage reusable Falcon 9 rockets.
Within three hours the crew capsule had reached a cruising orbital altitude of just over 363 miles (585 km) — higher than the International Space Station or Hubble Space Telescope, and the farthest any human has flown from Earth since NASA’s Apollo moon program ended in 1972.
It also marked the debut flight of Musk’s new space tourism business and a leap ahead of competitors likewise offering rides on rocket ships to well-heeled customers willing to pay a small fortune to experience the exhilaration of spaceflight and earn amateur astronaut wings.
The Inspiration4 team was led by its wealthy benefactor, Jared Isaacman, chief executive of the e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments Inc, who assumed the role of mission “commander.”
“That was a heck of a ride for us,” he radioed from the capsule moments after splashdown. “We’re just getting started.”
He had paid an undisclosed but reportedly enormous sum — put by Time magazine at roughly $200 million — to fellow billionaire Musk for all four seats aboard the Crew Dragon.
Isaacman was joined by three less affluent crewmates he had selected — geoscientist and former NASA astronaut candidate Sian Proctor, 51, physician’s assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and aerospace data engineer and Air Force veteran Chris Sembroski, 42.
Isaacman conceived of the flight primarily to raise awareness and donations for one of his favorite causes, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading pediatric cancer center in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arceneaux was a patient and now works.
The Inspiration4 crew had no part to play in flying the spacecraft, which was operated by ground-based flight teams and onboard guidance systems, even though Isaacman and Proctor are both licensed pilots.
SpaceX already ranked as the most well-established player in the burgeoning constellation of commercial rocket ventures, having launched numerous cargo payloads and astronauts to the space station for NASA.
Two rival operators, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. and Blue Origin, inaugurated their own astro-tourism services in recent months, with their respective founding executives, billionaires Richard Branson and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, each going along for the ride.
Those suborbital flights, lasting a matter of minutes, were short hops compared with Inspiration4’s three days in orbit.
SpaceX capsule with world’s first all-civilian orbital crew splashes down off Florida
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SpaceX capsule with world’s first all-civilian orbital crew splashes down off Florida
- The crew members will be removed from the capsule once it has been placed safely on the floating recovery vessel
Australia passes tougher laws on guns, hate crimes after Bondi shooting
- The gun control laws passed with the support of the Greens party despite opposition from the opposition conservative Liberal-National coalition
- The anti-hate laws passed with support from the Liberal party
SYDNEY: Australia has enacted new laws for a national gun buyback, tighter background checks for gun licenses and a crackdown on hate crimes in response to the country’s worst mass shooting in decades at a Jewish festival last month.
Two bills for stricter gun control and anti-hate measures passed the House of Representatives and Senate late on Tuesday during a special sitting of parliament.
The gun control laws passed with the support of the Greens party despite opposition from the opposition conservative Liberal-National coalition. The anti-hate laws passed with support from the Liberal party.
Introducing the gun reforms, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said individuals with “hate in their hearts and guns in their hands” carried out the December 14 attack at the famed Bondi Beach that killed 15 people.
“The tragic events at Bondi demand a comprehensive response from government,” Burke said. “As a government we must do everything we can to counter both the motivation and the method.”
The father and son gunmen allegedly behind the attack on Jewish Hanukkah celebrations used powerful firearms that were legally obtained, despite the son being previously examined by Australia’s spy agency.
PARLIAMENT RECALLED EARLY FOR SPECIAL SESSION
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recalled parliament early from its summer break for this week’s special two-day session to toughen curbs after a shooting that shocked the nation and prompted calls for more action on gun control and antisemitism.
The proposed gun control measures enable the largest national buyback scheme since a similar campaign after a 1996 massacre in Tasmania’s Port Arthur, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people.
They also toughen firearm import laws as well as background checks for firearm licenses issued by Australian states, making use of information from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.
Australia had a record 4.1 million firearms last year, the government said on Sunday, with more than 1.1 million of those in New South Wales, its most populous state and the site of the Bondi attack.
“The sheer number of firearms currently circulating within the Australian community is unsustainable,” Burke said.
The bill passed without the support of the opposition coalition, with a vote of 96-45 in the lower house, and 38-26 in the Senate.
“This bill reveals the contempt the government has for the million gun owners of Australia,” said Shadow Attorney-General Andrew Wallace of the Liberals.
“The prime minister has failed to recognize that guns are tools of trade for so many Australians.”
HATE CRIME PENALTIES STEPPED UP
A second bill steps up penalties for hate crimes, such as jail terms up to 12 years when a religious official or preacher is involved, and allows bans on groups deemed to spread hate.
The bill, which also provides new powers to cancel or refuse visas for those who spread hate, passed the lower house by a 116-7 margin and the Senate 38-22.
It won support from Liberal party lawmakers after ruling Labor struck a deal to include changes such as a requirement the government consult the opposition leader on the listing and delisting of extremist organizations.
The Liberals’ coalition partners abstained from the vote and the Greens opposed it, arguing it would have a “chilling effect” on political debate and protest.
“This bill targets those that support violence, in particular violence targeted at a person because of their immutable attributes,” said Attorney-General Michelle Rowland.
Such conduct is not only criminal but sows the seed of extremism leading to terrorism, she added. Police say the alleged Bondi gunmen were inspired by the Daesh group.
The measures were originally planned for a single bill, but backlash from both the coalition and the Greens forced the government to split the package and drop provisions for an offense of racial vilification.
In its own reforms, New South Wales limits individuals to possession of four guns, and beefs up the power of police to curb protests during designated terrorist attacks.
