Who are SpaceX’s civilian astronauts, what are their roles and how will they land?
Four amateur astronauts are due to spend about three days in orbit in a world first, after they blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday evening.
The Inspiration4 mission, backed by SpaceX, was organised by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who is also one of the passengers.
They are the first all-civilian crew ever to circle the Earth from space.
During their trip, those on board will carry out a series of science experiments before returning home.
So who are the four crew members, how did they get there and what will happen in the next 72 hours or so.
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A giant leap in commercial space travel
Who are the amateur astronauts?
The four people aboard the Dragon capsule are Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Dr Sian Proctor.
Mr Isaacman is the man behind the mission, and paid an undisclosed sum to get the project off the ground.
The 38-year-old made his money with a payment processing company – like SpaceX head Elon Musk – and now also operates a private air force.
Jared Isaacman. Pic: Inspiration4/John Kraus
An experienced pilot, he wants the journey to raise awareness for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
The other three members of the crew were selected according to Mr Isaacman’s conditions.
Hayley Arceneaux, 29, is an employee of St Jude’s, and had cancer during her childhood.
Taking someone from the hospital was a condition from Mr Isaacman.
Ms Arceneaux, a physician’s assistant, is the first person to travel to space with a prosthesis – part of her right femur was replaced by a metal rod during a bone cancer battle at the age of 10.
Dr Proctor, 51, is an entrepreneur and trained pilot herself.
She won her seat through a competition based on a set of business-related tasks.
The four space tourists have defined roles. Pic: Inspiration4/John Kraus
The scientist previously applied for NASA‘s astronaut programme but was unsuccessful – but is now in space.
Last up is Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran who now works for Lockheed Martin.
He was selected from a lottery of people who donated to St Jude’s – a competition which received around 72,000 entries.
What are their roles?
The four space tourists have defined roles, according to their backgrounds.
They have been branded leadership, hope, prosperity and generosity.
Mr Isaacman is leadership, and he will be the mission commander in charge of the operation.
Hope is Ms Arceneaux, who will act as medical officer and will help with experiments being carried out – many of which are medically based.
Dr Proctor unsuccesfully applied to be a NASA astronaut. Pic: Inspiration4/John Kraus
Dr Proctor is prosperity and the mission pilot. She will support Mr Isaacman.
Generosity is represented by Mr Sembroski, who is the mission specialist and will help “manage payload, science experiments, communications to mission control and more”.
What will they do?
Most of the experiments being carried out by the crew are “to increase humanity’s knowledge on the impact of spaceflight on the human body”.
SpaceX, the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and the Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City will analyse the data collected.
How is the ship controlled?
The crew are aboard a Dragon capsule, a reusable pod developed by SpaceX.
It can seat up to seven people, and has been to the International Space Station 25 times – 10 of which were repeat journeys.
The Dragon capsule has room for seven people and solar panels to provide power
It is capable of carrying 365lbs (166kg) of cargo, which is being used for scientific equipment and crew essentials on this journey.
Solar panels on the outside of the craft are used to generate power for the capsule and crew.
The touchscreen control panels in the capsule allow the crew to monitor telemetry
The vessel is largely automatically controlled, with a set of large touch screens instead of the traditional-looking dashboard of buttons, levers and toggles for the pilots to observe.
The pilots can also take control of the capsule with the touchscreens.
Sixteen Draco thrusters are used to direct the vehicle after it separates from the take-off rocket, and it has a set of parachutes for landing.
How are they getting back?
A splashdown of a Dragon capsule. Pic: NASA
After the orbiting is complete, the capsule will head back to Earth.
According to the official plan, this will culminate in a “soft water landing” off the coast of Florida.
After re-entering our planet’s atmosphere, two “drogue” parachutes are deployed, before four main canopies are released.
The crew and vessel will then be retrieved from the water.
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the publication’s owner, News Corp.
The US president has accused the named individuals of defamation, claiming they acted with malicious intent and caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami, seeks at least $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump called the lawsuit “historic legal action” which was filed on behalf of himself and all Americans who he said will “no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media”.
“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” he wrote.
It comes after Mr Trump claimed that a letter he allegedly wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “fake” and said he would sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first published the story.
The publication had said Mr Trump wrote the letter as part of a collection Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, planned to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003.
It claimed the message, allegedly from Mr Trump, featured several lines of typewritten text, concluding with: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
The text was framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, the WSJ claimed. The letter is also said to have featured the signature “Donald”.
Mr Trump immediately denied writing the letter when the WSJ report was published on Thursday night.
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Memes of Epstein undermine victims, says lawyer
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”
Mr Trump ignored questions about Epstein as he signed a cryptocurrency bill at the White House earlier on Friday.
The president’s lawsuit comes as the US government filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019.
In a Manhattan federal court filing, the Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.
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The justice department previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more.
It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony, which is typically kept secret under US law.
Read more:
All we know about the ‘friendship’
Trump denies writing birthday letter to Epstein
The president has faced increased scrutiny over his alleged friendship with Epstein since his administration’s U-turn on the so-called ‘Epstein files’.
Mr Trump pledged to release files on Epstein during his presidential campaign, as his MAGA movement accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in his child sex trafficking operation.
But after a review of the evidence the US government has, the Justice Department recently determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.
Venezuela releases jailed Americans in prisoner swap
The Trump administration said on Friday that it had negotiated an exchange with Venezuela, resulting in the release of 10 jailed Americans.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the prisoners, who had been held in the South American country, were “on their way to freedom”.
Men in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
In return, 252 Venezuelan migrants being held in El Salvador have been freed, the Venezuelan government said.
They had been held in the notorious maximum security CECOT prison after being deported by the US.
US
Trump denies claim he wrote birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein – and says he has ordered release of more case files
Donald Trump has called an alleged letter he wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “fake” and said he will sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper that first published the claim.
In multiple posts on Truth Social, the US president accused The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of fabricating the letter that it claimed was written by Mr Trump as part of a collection of letters addressed to Epstein that his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell planned to give him as a birthday present in 2003.
According to documents seen by the WSJ, Mr Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.
The paper said the letter concludes “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”, and featured the signature “Donald”, allegedly drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP
Responding to the WSJ’s claims, Mr Trump wrote: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.
“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”
He said earlier he would also sue the WSJ and News Corp, which Mr Murdoch owns. The WSJ is published by News Corp subsidiary company, Dow Jones & Co.
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From 16 July: Trump: Epstein case is ‘a boring story’
The Justice Department has not responded to the WSJ and the FBI declined to comment.
In a separate post, Mr Trump said he has asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony” in the case of the paedophile financier who was found dead in his Manhattan cell in August 2019, shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
The release of any documents, Mr Trump said, would be subject to approval by a court.
The justice department has previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony – which is typically kept secret under US law.
Ms Bondi responded to the president on X, writing: “President Trump-we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
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Elon Musk, who claimed last month that Mr Trump appears in the Epstein files, was surprisingly among the first to come to the president’s defence over the WSJ claims.
“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, before going on to ask where the evidence against Epstein allegedly held by the FBI had gone.
The Trump administration has come under criticism after the president appeared to U-turn on his own promise to release more information about the Epstein case publicly.
In the run-up to the US election last year, Mr Trump drew on rumours and conspiracy theories that appeared to accuse the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in a child sex trafficking operation.
Ms Bondi fuelled these rumours in February by telling Fox News that the alleged Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
Read more:
Ghislaine Maxwell could challenge imprisonment
Why is Trump fighting with MAGA over Epstein?
The huge impact of Musk’s row with Trump
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In the same month, the justice department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations.
After a months-long review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files related to the case would be made public.
The decision was criticised by many in Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who Mr Trump later called “weaklings”.
Sky News has contacted the White House for further comment.
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