SpaceX Announces All Civilian Crew

On February 1st, SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk, announced plans for the first all-civilian mission to space, which is predicted to launch in the latter end of 2021. This will be a groundbreaking event in history, specifically in private spaceflight. The four-person crew, led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, will spend about five days in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon capsule with over a $2 billion contract under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was developed to encourage private spacecraft development. Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor, and Christopher Sembrowski will join Isaacman on the flight.

Space X has launched two crews into space in the past, but both missions included  trained NASA astronauts and one astronaut from Japan’s space agency. Additionally, these were government-funded trips to the International Space Station, which is wildly different from four private astronauts paying for a trip. While private citizens have flown to space before, they have typically paid to travel alongside trained NASA astronauts or Russian cosmonauts (Russian astronauts). What makes the SpaceX flight groundbreaking is it will be the first time a crew of entirely private citizens will go to space. 

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is the same pad that was previously used during NASA’s Apollo moon program. During the mission, the Dragon capsule will circle Earth every 90 minutes along a customized flight path. At the end of the expedition, the spacecraft will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and land off the coast of Florida.  

While Elon Musk would not specify an exact price, he said the price of an around-the-moon mission would be roughly the same as a crewed trip to the International Space Station. Looking at past trips, NASA pays the Russian space agency Roscosmos about $81 million for a round trip; however, the latest seats they bought were around $74.7 million. NASA relies on Roscosmos because the US Space Agency has not had a vehicle of its own to bring astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2011 when the Space Shuttle program was halted. NASA hopes that this $81 million price tag will drop in the future by partnering with private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing.

NASA estimates that a round trip ticket to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft would cost around $58 million. This price may change since the flight path of the spacecraft can vary. This price not only includes a spot on the spacecraft, but also training to operate the spacecraft along with everything else that they will need from takeoff to landing. In addition to the price, there is still another guideline that the passengers must meet: they must be under 6 feet and 6 inches tall and also must weigh less than 250 pounds, per the fundraiser’s official rules. 

While this journey to space is very exciting in and of itself, the funds from this trip will be used to kick off the biggest fundraiser ever, $100 million, for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Isaacman said, “If we’re going to continue making advances up there in space, then we have an obligation to do the same down here on Earth.”