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Amateur astronauts return to Earth

September 20, 2021 00:00:00


LONDON, Sept 19 (BBC): our amateur astronauts have splashed down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean after three days in space.

They are the first private, all-civilian team ever to orbit the Earth.

The Inspiration4 crew left on a SpaceX capsule from Florida on Wednesday, and landed off the state's coast after 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on Saturday.

Four parachutes slowed the capsule's descent before it landed in the water, where SpaceX boats sped to retrieve it.

The Inspiration4 team was led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, 38, chief executive of the e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments Inc, who acted as mission "commander".

He had paid an undisclosed sum - estimated by Time magazine to be about $200 million (£145 million) - to fellow billionaire Elon Musk for all four seats aboard the Crew Dragon.

Mr Isaacman was joined by three strangers he had selected - geoscientist and former Nasa astronaut candidate Sian Proctor, 51; physician assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, 29; and aerospace data engineer and Air Force veteran Chris Sembroski, 42.


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