Four SpaceX tourists returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending three days in space marking the success of the first orbital mission ever.
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 sent into Earth orbit.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule, whose heat shield allowed it to withstand descent, was slowed down by four large parachutes before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida shortly after sunset, according a live webcast by the company on its YouTube channel.
SpaceX, the private rocketry company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, supplied the spacecraft and handled all the operations of the flight including the splashdown.
Also read: SpaceX, Blue Origin to make Moon lander design for NASA
A SpaceX boat immediately retrieved the capsule after which the hatch was opened for the space tourists who emerged smiling after what appeared to be a happy journey.
"That was a heck of a ride for us, and we're just getting started," billionaire captain Jared Isaacman, who financed the trip, said shortly after landing.
The stated goal of the mission, called Inspiration4, was to encourage the democratization of space by proving that the cosmos are accessible to crews that have neither been handpicked nor in training for years.
The four space novices — Isaacman and three other Americans — spent three days orbiting Earth, traveling farther than the International Space Station (ISS), at an orbit of about 575 kilometers high, and circling the globe more than 15 times each day.
Isaacman, who paid SpaceX millions of dollars, offered the other three seats to Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.
The exact price that the 38-year-old founder of Shift4 Payments and seasoned pilot shelled out for the mission has not been disclosed.
The tourists enjoyed the view through an observation dome fitted onto the capsule.
"Welcome to the second space age," mission director Todd Ericson said at a press conference after the landing.
With its completion, "space travel becomes much more accessible to average men and women."
