The first all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, culminating a three-day journey aboard a SpaceX capsule that inaugurated a new era of privately financed space travel for non-professional astronauts.
The SpaceX Dragon fired thrusters to begin its entry into the atmosphere, a journey in which the vehicle experiences temperatures as high as 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). It operates with six parachutes to slow descent, including four main parachutes.
The successful launch and landing was a proof-of-concept demonstration for Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., greatly advancing the prospects of orbital space tourism, so long as affluent adventurers are willing to pay the astronomical sums SpaceX and other companies will be charging for the privilege. In July, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos flew brief suborbital flights to space aboard vehicles built by the space companies they founded.
