Splashdown! On Saturday, September 18, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule safely landed in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Florida coast. It marked the end of the Inspiration4 mission. It was the first spaceflight to orbit Earth without any professional astronauts.
The crew of four people had blasted off on September 15, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their capsule reached an altitude of 366 miles above Earth. That’s higher than the International Space Station. The capsule circled Earth for three days.
SpaceX hopes the mission will help make space travel possible for everyone, not just trained astronauts. Another goal of Inspiration4 was to raise $200 million for cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Crew member Hayley Arceneaux (AR-seh-noh) works at the hospital and is a survivor of childhood cancer.
“I just want you all to know that we’re doing this for you,” she told St. Jude patients during a video call from space.
When the crew splashed down, the mission had raised $160 million for St. Jude. Elon Musk, who started SpaceX, later sent out a special tweet. He said he would donate $50 million. That pushed the amount raised to $210 million.