Inspiration4 crew settle into orbit as Dragon climbs

After a smooth launch into orbit, the Inspiration4 astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience should be climbing out of their flight suits and settling into their new life in orbit. Their Dragon spacecraft, meanwhile, is making its way toward a final orbit 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.

The spacecraft has completed its first of several “phasing burns” to climb to its higher orbit, the highest altitude for a space mission since NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope repair missions. Here’s the launch view from Space.com contributor Amy Thompson at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center during liftoff:

While SpaceX’s live webcast ended after reaching orbit, company officials said before signing off that the all-civilian crew were expected to get their first look outside through the Dragon’s massive new cupola window, so they may be gazing at Earth for awhile. 

The team’s medical officer Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician’s assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, unveiled an adorable stuffed toy puppy called Jude as the crew’s zero-gravity indicator after reaching orbit. The toy represents the golden retriever dogs Puggle and Hucklebery at St. Jude and is wearing a spacesuit. You can find a replica of the puppy here to support St. Jude.

We’ll resume our live coverage early Thursday, Sept. 16. In the meantime, behold, Jude the Inspiration4 space puppy.

Spacecraft Separation! Dragon in orbit!

The Crew Dragon Resilience has separated from its Falcon 9 upper stage, officially bringing the into orbit. They have a little toy stuffed golden retriever as their zero-g indicator. 

Earlier, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first stage landed safely on the drone ship Just Read The Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. 

The Inspiration4 astronauts, SpaceX and the rest of us are awaiting the opening of the cupola for the first time on Crew Dragon. The glass dome is the largest single window ever to fly in space.

Entry Burn

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 1st stage has performed its entry burn for tonight’s landing attempt on the drone ship Just Read The Instructions.

Stage Separation

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket first stage has separated from its upper stage and is preparing to return to Earth. The upper stage is continuing upward carrying the Inspiration4 crew towards orbit.

LIFTOFF!

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has lifted off into history carrying four civilians on a first-of-its kind mission to orbit.

The Falcon 9 and its Crew Dragon rocket are carrying the Inspiration4 crew led by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who financed the flight. He is joined by pilot Sian Proctor, a geoscientist; medical officer Hayley Arceneaux, a bone cancer survivor and St. Jude Children’s Hospital physician’s assistant and data engineer Chris Sembroski.

T-10 minutes to launch

SpaceX Sarah Gillis has given a final sign off to the Inspiration4 crew as they near launch tonight at 8:02 p.m. EDT.

“It has been an absolute honor to prepare you for this historic flight. Today you are truly inspiring the world. We wish you a great mission. Good luck, Godspeed, and enjoy the ride.”

Less than 15 minutes to launch

With less than 15 minutes to go to until launch, SpaceX is topping off the Inspiration4 crew’s Falcon 9 rocket upper stage with liquid oxygen. Everything continues on schedule for tonight’s launch at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT).

The Falcon 9 rocket’s 1st stage for Inspiration4 is making its third trip to space, while the Crew Dragon Resilience is on its second trip after flying NASA’s Crew-2 astronauts to the International Space Station last year.

The crew is GO for launch!

It’s finally here, less than 30 minutes until Inspiration4 lifts off at 8:02 p.m. EDT tonight (Sept. 15)  (0002 GMT Sept. 16) and the crew is go for launch. 

“The crew of #Inspiration4 is go for launch,” the Inspiartion4 mission Twitter account tweeted. 

The crew arm moves away, fueling begins, countdown is getting close

At T-35 minutes from launch, the crew access arm that the astronauts previously walked out on to get to the Crew Dragon spacecraft moved away from the craft. 

This means that the teams at SpaceX are going to begin loading propellant into the Falcon 9 rocket that will propel the craft to orbit. Additionally, the teams at SpaceX have armed the launch escape system. These steps show that things are going as planned and the launch is very, very close!

Follow along at the livestream above or at Space.com to keep u with the crew as they approach launch!

Less than an hour to launch! What are they bringing to space?

The Inspiration4 crew are ready to launch to space! They are now less than an hour from launching on a 3-day orbital journey in space. 

So what are they bringing to space?

The crew has shared the interesting tidbits they’re carrying with them, some of which will be auctioned off later to support the mission’s objective to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

Related: Inspiration4: When to watch and what to know

The items that will be later auctioned off for St. Jude include Inspiration4 mission jackets that will feature artwork by St. Jude patients; hops from Sam Adams that will be used to make beer upon returning to Earth; a Fisher Space Pen that contains a piece of Apollo 11 thermal tape; toys based off of characters from the animated show “Space Racers,” fifty NFTs (non-fungible tokens) from artists including mission pilot Sian Proctor. 

All strapped in and ready to go!

Inspiration4’s four civilian astronauts are suited up, strapped in and ready to go space!

With the hatch closed the the countdown approaching T-minus one hour, the crew continues preparations and final checks while strapped in aboard the specially-outfitted SpaceX Crew Dragon that they will ride into orbit around Earth and home again. 

This spacecraft is specially-equipped with a small cupola window that will allow the crew to peer out and see Earth from inside the capsule as they travel around Earth. 

90 minutes to launch and things are looking good!

The hatch has been officially and successfully closed, as you can see in the video above, and it is now less than 90 minutes until the Inspiration4 mission launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

“We’re getting close and the skies look great. About 90 minutes to the beginning of our #Inspiration4 launch window!” Inspiration4 tweeted alongside a few photos of the crew and Pad 39A where they will launch from in just a few minutes. 

Callsigns for SpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew

SpaceX has completed all its flight suit checks for the Inspiration4 crew, with some novel callsigns for the four civilian astronauts. The next major step will be hatch closure.

The Inspiration4 team earned their callsign nicknames during jet flight training with Jared Isaacman’s old flight team. If you hear strange names, during SpaceX calls to Dragon, that’s why. Those names are: 

Rook: Jared Isaacman, he already had the callsign rom his flying days. 

Leo: Sian Proctor.

Hanks: Chris Sembroski, apparently a Tom Hanks reference. 

Nova: Hayley Arceneaux

Inspiration4 crew enters Crew Dragon Resilience

Inspiration4 crewmembers Hayley Arceneaux and Sian Proctor have entered SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience for tonight’s launch. Crewmates Jared Isaacman and Chris Sembroski are also preparing for ingress. 

The crew are just under 3 hours to launch, with liftoff set for 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT). 

Once inside Resilience, the Inspiration4 crew will perform a series of communications and system checks to ensure they’re ready for launch.

Inspiration4 crew arrives at launch pad

The four Inspiration4 crewmembers have arrived at Launch Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where they will board their Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft for tonight’s launch. 

Liftoff is on track for 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT).

The Inspiration4 crew are now donning their SpaceX flight suits for tonight’s launch on the Crew Dragon Resilience. 

They are inside a new suit-up room at SpaceX’s Falcon support building near Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. 

Elon Musk visits SpaceX Inspiration4 crew

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk just visited the four Inspiration4 crewmembers as they prepared to head to the launchpad for tonight’s launch. 

Musk posed for a photo with the crew before they left SpaceX’s Hangar X earlier today and drove out to Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Check it out.

Weather forecast is 90% chance of good weather

SpaceX’s John Insprucker says the weather forecast for tonight’s Inspiration4 launch at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0020 GMT) has improved. There is now a pristine 90% chance of good conditions at launch, up from 80% earlier today. 

Insprucker said the weather outlook looks good not just for tonight’s launch, but for the next three days through splashdown and recovery. 

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew heads to launch pad

The four astronauts for SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 mission have arrived at their launch site to suit up in their custom pressure suits for tonight’s launch into orbit. 

The crewmembers, led by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, walked out of SpaceX’s Hangar X at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and took two Teslas to the company’s Falcon support building near Launch Pad 29A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. There, they are getting a final briefing and will get their personal tablets for the mission. Later, they’ll don sleek, black-and-white spacesuits and head to the pad itself.

SpaceX Inspiration4 live webcast to start soon

SpaceX is counting down toward a tonight’s Inspiration4 civilian astronaut launch to orbit and all systems appear to be GO, so far. 

At 3:45 pm. EDT (1945 GMT), SpaceX’s launch webcast will begin and run through tonight’s launch attempt. Liftoff is still targeted for 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 Sept. 16 GMT), with a 70% chance of good launch weather. 

You can watch the launch webcast live on this page at top, or here on our full webcast guide. You can also watch it directly from SpaceX here.

At 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT), Netflix will host it’s own live launch webcast and you can watch that here.

Systems and weather are GO for launch tonight!

Inspiration4 is one step closer to launch as SpaceX has announced that “all systems and weather are looking good for today’s Falcon 9 launch of Dragon’s first all-civilian spaceflight.” 

The mission is still set to lift off tonight (Sept. 15) at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT Sept. 16) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

To follow along with the crew, catch SpaceX’s live webcast, which begins at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT) this afternoon, a little over four hours ahead of the launch. 

Inspiration4 astronauts prepare to launch

Inspiration4’s crew of four civilian astronauts are just hours away from launching on a 3-day journey in orbit around Earth. 

But while they’re getting ready to blast off of our planet, the crew, who will lift off at 8:02 EDT tonight (Sept. 15) (0002 GMT Sept. 16) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, isn’t nervous, they’re excited!

Even SpaceX founder Elon Musk is excited. After changing his Twitter profile photo to the Inspiration4 crew photo, he tweeted “Watch Countdown on Netflix about Inspiration4 mission launching today,” encouraging his followers to follow along on the crew’s journey. 

Mission pilot Sian Proctor shared her excitement this afternoon on social media, tweeting “I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life. Thank you for all the well wishes & support. Let’s do this!”

“We are happy to make our contributions to science,” commander Jared Isaacman wrote on Twitter ahead of the launch about the mission’s planned research experiments that will expand our understanding of the effects of space on human health. 

Medical officer Hayley Arceneaux shared “I want to thank everyone for all the support, encouragement, and love. And thank you to @StJude for being the reason I’m here today. This is for everyone who’s ever been through something difficult, and I know we all have. Hold onto hope because there WILL be better days,” she tweeted.

Mission specialist Chris Sembroski shared his joy as well, tweeting “Launch day! And you are welcome to join in the adventure! It all builds up to Liftoff at 8:02pm ET from Pad 39A.”

Inspiration4 will make history!

Tonight’s (Sept. 15) Inspiration4 mission will make history in SO many ways!

First, this will be the first all-civilian mission to orbit. That means that this is the first time that a mission has launched to orbit with only civilians, or spaceflyers who are not “professional astronauts,” or astronauts employed by an agency like NASA, on board. 

This mission will also carry a crew who are making history themselves!

With this mission, pilot Sian Proctor has become history’s first Black female spacecraft pilot and the crew’s medical officer Hayley Arceneaux is set to be both the youngest American to ever go to space with this mission, and the first person to go to space with a prosthesis. 

Inspiration4 launches TONIGHT! How to watch and celebrate

TONIGHT! (Sept. 15) Inspiration4, the first-ever all-civilian mission to orbit will take off for a 3-day journey around Earth. 

The mission will launch at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT Sept. 16) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

To join in the fun, you can tune into SpaceX’s official livestream at Space.com or directly on SpaceX’s YouTube channel starting at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT). 

Closer to the launch window, you can catch the crew along with a slew of celebrities in a Netflix livestream below: 

The 90-minute Netflix live bash will feature hosts Karamo of Queer Eye fame and award-willing journalist Soledad O’Brien. 

The livestream will air alongside Netflix’s new docuseries “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space,” follows the crew of Inspiration4 in real-time as they prepare to launch to space. 

In addition to the Inspiration4 crew and the show’s hosts, it will also include appearances by former NASA astronauts Leland Melvin, Cady Coleman and Ron Garan. The live event will also include Time’s editor-at-large Jeffrey Kluger who will be reporting live from Kennedy Space Center, and additional celebrity appearances by actors who appear in Netflix series including “Lost in Space,” “Shadow and Bone,” “Another Life,” “The Baby-Sitters Club,” “Baking Impossible,” “Bling Empire,” “The Chair,” “The Circle,” “Family Reunion,” “Floor is Lava,” “Love Is Blind,” “My Unorthodox Life,” “Never Have I Ever,” “On My Block” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

Launch day!

Today is the day! 

Tonight (Sept. 15) at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT Sept. 16), the Inspiration4 mission will launch to orbit with four civilian astronauts (or spaceflyers that aren’t “professional astronauts” with an agency like NASA) on board. 

The mission will send the four civilian astronauts into orbit for three days aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that’s equipped with a special cupola window they will be able to peer through to see planet Earth. 

The crew members include commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Sian Proctor, medical officer Hayley Arceneaux and mission specialist Chris Sembroski. Read more about the crewmembers here. 

Check out this page to learn more about the mission and what to expect: Inspiration4: When to watch and what to know.

You can watch the launch LIVE tonight over at Space.com or directly at SpaceX’s Youtube channel here. 

One day from launch! Take a look at the crew

It is one day away from the launch of Inspiration4!

Tomorrow night (Sept. 15), four soon-to-be astronauts will launch aboard the first all-civilian mission to orbit no earlier than 8:02 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 15 (0022 GMT Thursday, Sept. 16) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The four crewmembers have a wide variety of backgrounds and all found themselves on a journey to space through unique circumstances.  

Read more about the crewmembers here. 

A brief synopsis!

Launching on this mission will be: 

Commander Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who founded Shift4 Payments. Isaacman chartered the SpaceX Crew Dragon flight that will bring the crew to orbit and return them safely home. 

Sian Proctor is a geoscientist, science communicator, professor and Afrofuturism space artist whose inspirational video and art propelled her into her seat to space. 

Hayley Arceneaux is a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and a childhood cancer survivor who’s helping the mission raise money and awareness for the hospital.

Chris Sembroski is an Air Force veteran, a data engineer and a former Space Camp counselor. 

Static fire and dress rehearsal complete

SpaceX successfully completed the static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the Inspiration4 mission, company officials announced on Twitter this morning. The Inspiration4 crew also completed a dress rehearsal for the mission on Sunday (Sept. 12).

The launch window has also narrowed down a bit: Inspiration4 is now scheduled to launch during a five-hour window that opens Wednesday (Sept. 15) at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 Sept. 16 GMT), SpaceX added. 

It’s launch week for SpaceX’s private Inspiration4 mission and the four civilians launching on the site have paid a final trip to their Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon Resilience, the ship that will be their home in space during the 3-day mission.

SpaceX is targeting an 8 p.m. EDT launch on Sept. 15 for the Inspiration4 mission, which will launch Shift4 entrepreneur and billionaire Jared Isaacman into space with crewmates Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski. Isaacman is financing the flight privately and gave away the three seats to his crewmates through fundraising efforts for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“One last touch of our Dragon capsule before launch,” wrote Proctor, Inspiration4’s  pilot and a geoscientist, on Twitter. 

“The awe visiting of our spaceship,” Arceneaux, a physician’s assistant at St. Jude, added. 

“Resilience is ready to roll. She is on the Falcon and it is a beautiful sight!” added Sembroski. 

New launch date

Inspiration4 is now targeting liftoff of no earlier than 8 p.m. EDT on Sept. 15 (midnight Sept. 16 GMT), mission officials announced this morning — a 24-hour slip from the original launch window. 

Teams from SpaceX and Inspiration4 met on Thursday (Sept. 9) for a follow-on flight readiness review and a weather briefing, Inspiration4 officials said in a statement. 

“After evaluating the readiness of the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, associated ground systems, recovery assets and other key elements of SpaceX’s human spaceflight system, and the current weather forecasts of conditions at the launch site, along the ascent corridor, and at the landing locations off the coasts of Florida for a safe return of the crew a few days later, teams agreed to now target no earlier than 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 15 for liftoff,” the statement reads.

“This will allow additional time for final preparations, vehicle checkouts and data reviews. SpaceX and Inspiration4 will narrow down the launch window to five hours approximately three days before liftoff,” the statement added.

Inspiration4 crew completes spaceflight training

The four private astronauts launching with SpaceX on the Inspiration4 mission have completed all of their training and will head to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida today for their last days on Earth before liftoff. The launch is targeted for Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 Sept. 15 GMT).

“Our Inspiration4 crew has completed astronaut training at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, CA and is en route to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final preparations and launch!” the Inspiration4 team wrote in an update today. 

Related: Inspiration4: SpaceX’s historic private spaceflight in photos

“At the last meeting today we heard… “Inspiration4 is signed off for spaceflight”… we are now on the way to with a busy schedule right up to launch,” Jared Isaacman, the Shift4 entrepreneur and billionaire financing the flight, wrote in another update.

Isaacman will command the unprecedented three-day private spaceflight with three others, all civilians like him, on the flight. He’ll be joined by geoscientist Sian Proctor as the mission’s pilot; Hayley Arceneaux as medical officer and data engineer Chris Sembroski as mission specialist.  

One week from launch!

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission, the world’s 1st private all-civilian spaceflight, is now one week away from a planned Sept. 15 launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission, financed by Shift4 entrepreneur and billionaire Jared Isaacman, will launch him and three others on a three-day orbital mission on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon Resilience. Isaacman will be joined by geoscientist Sian Proctor as pilot; and bone cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux and data engineer Chris Sembroski as mission specialists. Arceneaux, who works with St. Jude Children’s Hospital, was selected for the flight, with Proctor and Sembroski nabbing their seats as part of an online contest. 

“Alright, let’s go to space, @rookisaacman,” Arceneaux wrote on Twitter Tuesday (Sept. 7) while sharing a photo of herself and Isaacman boarding a plane. 

The four astronauts-to-be have spent the last few months training to fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience, which launched NASA’s Crew-1 astronauts to the International Space Station in 2020. But the Inspiration4 mission will not visit the station. Instead, it will orbit the Earth and has a huge glass dome in place of its docking port to offer stunning views to the Dragon crew.

Inspiration4 is GO for launch

SpaceX and the Inspiration4 team completed a flight readiness review on Thursday (Sept. 2) and declared the mission “go” for launch on Sept. 15. The exact liftoff time will be determined just a few days before launch. Read the full story.

With just over one week to go until the Inspiration4 launch, we’ll be posting daily updates on the countdown, launch and splashdown here throughout the mission. If you’re looking for more information on the the Inspiration4 mission, check out our Inspiration4 reference page here. 

Our gallery here has the latest Inspiration4 mission photos. You can even watch a new documentary on Netflix to learn more about the flight.