SpaceX plans additional private flights, including one early next year for Axiom Space Inc., which is taking a retired NASA astronaut and three others to the space station for several days. The company also plans a trip to circle the moon with a Japanese entrepreneur and eight artists who will accompany him, as early as 2023.
Musk tweeted about the Inspiration4 flight going well and the mission’s social media accounts offered four photos from the Dragon on Thursday, but there has otherwise been little information provided about the flight. That’s in stark contrast to government-funded NASA missions, with their frequent public updates.
NASA engineers plan to inspect the vehicle to understand how it withstood radiation, micro-meteor impacts and the large thermal load from re-entry. The 27-foot-tall (8.2 meter) Dragon can carry as many as seven passengers.
SpaceX has flown Dragon crew and cargo capsules to space more than two dozen times since debuting in 2010, with most of those configured for resupply missions to the space station. Its last flight with NASA personnel was in May when four astronauts returned from the ISS.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.