You may not know it, but space tourism has finally passed the stage of guessing. On September 16, the Inspiration4 mission sent four civilians into space, for the first time for commercial purposes.
The astronauts taking part in the flight seem to have enjoyed themselves, including Commander Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments. He thus shared striking pictures on his Twitter account, according to him made on the iPhone. We do not know the model to which it refers, but the photos date from before the delivery of the last models announced in September.
Amazing that an iPhone can take a shot like this. I really love the nosecone in the picture. pic.twitter.com/sz1UVx3pUE
– Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) October 3, 2021
A specially designed vessel
It must be said that the context is particularly suitable. By updating the Crew Dragon space shuttle, SpaceX engineers have indeed grafted a glass dome that is reminiscent of the famous Cupola of the ISS. In this way, visitors can then easily discover the environment at 360 degrees with obviously a breathtaking view of our planet. It is said that even the series producers have cracked :
© SpaceX
History does not say whether Apple paid to take advantage of this successful marketing stunt, but it is true that the result is more than effective. Here is another piece of content immortalized by Isaacson, where we can see the module installed on top of the rocket and floating hundreds of kilometers above civilization:
Cool video from 🐉 cupola w / xenomorph. In hindsight, it wasn’t worth the trouble of repacking the alien and probably took away from the video… but the view is pretty incredible and my kids will like the 👽
Shot from: iPhone. pic.twitter.com/OB0KTIlv0y– Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) September 24, 2021
Finally, a seventeen-second video as it passes over Brazil, the fifth country in the world by area:
A video over Brazil from first day on orbit. Shot w / iPhone but hopefully we can get some of@ inspiration4xNikon shots out soon. Such a privilege to see our 🌎 from this perspective. We need to take far better care of our home planet and also reaching for the stars. pic.twitter.com/mAQw6eK8Ui
– Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) September 25, 2021
An activity already criticized
Elon Musk’s goal with SpaceX is above all to save humanity from global warming, by relocating it to Mars. But launching launchers with little scientific ambition can prove to be counterproductive in view of the pollution generated by such journeys.
In addition, it is Inspiration4 itself which questions because the event took the opportunity to raise funds intended to fight against childhood cancers (for a total amount estimated at two hundred million dollars.). However, only 1% to 2% of all cancers concern the youngest, a figure for example well below the AIDS statistics.
