SpaceX to Launch Private, All-civilian Crew into Earth Orbit
Voice of America
WASHINGTON - SpaceX is set to launch four people into space Wednesday on a three-day mission that is the first to orbit the Earth with exclusively private citizens on board, as Elon Musk's company enters the space tourism fray.
The "Inspiration4" mission caps a summer that saw billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos cross the final frontier, on Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin spaceships respectively, a few days apart in July. The SpaceX flight has been chartered by American billionaire Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payment. He is also a seasoned pilot. The exact price he paid SpaceX hasn't been disclosed, but it runs into the tens of millions of dollars.
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Climate activists stage a protest inside the COP29 venue to demand a phase out of fossil fuels during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku on Nov. 15, 2024.
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FILE - A pumpjack operates at dawn in a pasture, Sept. 30, 2024, near Hays, Kan.
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Ninawa Inu Pereira Nunes, President of the Federation of the Huni Kuin indigenous people in Brazil's state of Acre, gives an interview during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 13, 2024.