All is well: Elon Musk, Space X say civilian crew healthy, happy and resting

The all-civilian crew that boarded Space-X‘s first private flight streaked into orbit on Wednesday is ‘all good’ the company’s founder Elon Musk confirmed. It is the first time a spacecraft circles the Earth with an all-amateur crew and no professional astronauts.

In its first update since the launch, Space X said the all-civilian Inspiration4 crew are ‘healthy, happy and resting comfortably’.

Also read: SpaceX launch: Purpose of ‘Inspiration4’ mission in a nutshell

Musk tweeted that he had personally spoken with the crew and “all is well.”

“The @Inspiration4x crew is healthy, happy, and resting comfortably. Before the crew went to bed, they traveled 5.5 times around Earth, completed their first round of scientific research, and enjoyed a couple of meals,” Space X tweeted Thursday, a day after the mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral. 

Also read: Difference between space flights of Branson, Bezos and Musk

In the same thread, the company added that after waking up, the Inspiration4 crew will  Dragon ship’s cupola — a large observation dome that has been fitted onto the vessel for the first time, in place of a docking mechanism.

The Dragon capsule’s two men and two women are looking to spend three days going round and round the planet from an unusually high orbit — 100 miles (160 kilometers) higher than the International Space Station — before splashing down off the Florida coast this weekend.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman, physician assistant and cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, geoscientist Sian Proctor and aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroski are on the spacecraft currently. 

Though the capsule is automated, the four Dragon riders spent six months training for the flight to cope with any emergency. That training included centrifuge and fighter jet flights, launch and reentry practice in SpaceX’s capsule simulator and a grueling trek up Washington’s Mount Rainier in the snow.