The Stars My Destination: Inspiration4

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Space Age
From 16-18 September 2021, Spacecraft Commander Jared "Rook" Isaacman (private), Pilot Sian "Leo" Proctor (private), Medical Officer Hayley "Nova" Arceneaux (private), & Payload Specialist Christopher "Hanks" Sembroski (private) lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience (Dragon C207) atop a Falcon 9 rocket, orbited the Earth, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, & were recovered by the GO Searcher (later renamed the M/V Megan). The Resilience was modified with a clear cupola for sightseeing/observation in place of the docking adapter; the Resilience was thus incapable of docking with the International Space Station, which was not an issue since Inspiration4's orbital altitude was over a hundred miles higher than the I.S.S.'s.

Isaacman, Proctor, Arceneaux, & Sembroski were all rookies. Inspiration4 was the first all-private flight into low Earth orbit; the private flights of Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule & Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane earlier in 2021 were suborbital. The flight was part of a fundraising campaign for the Saint Jude's Children's Research Hospital & exceeded its fundraising goal.

Inspiration4 was the second flight of the Resilience.

Subsequent to the mission's success, Isaacman—a tech oligarch—has contracted with SpaceX for three additional flights, dubbed the Polaris Program: Polaris Dawn, scheduled for March 2023, will attempt to set a new Earth orbit altitude record, surpassing the record set by Gemini 11 in 1966, & attempt the first private spacewalk. SpaceX is studying the feasibility of using a Crew Dragon capsule to boost the sinking Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit on a later Polaris mission.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Inspiration4 & the Resilience
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, "I Believe I Can Fly" from Take a Break (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Wayback Machine Tour of Launch America
2020
Demo-2 Launch & Demo-2 Splashdown
Crew-1 Launch, Crew-1 Relocation, & Crew-1 Splashdown
2021
Crew-2 Launch & Crew-2 Splashdown
Crew-3 Launch & Crew-3 Splashdown
2022
Crew-4 Launch & Crew-4 Splashdown
Crew-5 Launch

Godspeed & welcome back to the good Earth, Inspiration4!