SpaceX founder Elon Musk and the Inspiration4 crew flew over SpaceX’s Starbase launch site at Boca Chica Beach, Texas, on Saturday afternoon. Musk shared a video flying side-by-side L39 and Alpha jets. In the video, linked below, the jets fly above the Starbase rocket factory where SpaceX is developing Starship, its next-generation launch vehicle.
Thanks for letting us check out your pad
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 28, 2021
Inspiration4 Commander Jared Isaacman, is a pilot who founded Shift4Payments and co-founded Draken International, a company that operates one of the world's largest fleets of privately-owned fighter jets that provides services to train pilots for the U.S. Armed Forces. “Thanks for letting us checkout your pad,” Isaacman told Musk via Twitter. It is likely that SpaceX provided the Inspiration4 crew with an exclusive tour of the Starbase factory and Starship launch pad. The official Inspiration4 project photographer, John Kraus, captured an awesome photo of the jets flying above SpaceX’s Starship launch pad where Starship SN20 awaits its debut orbital flight test, pictured below. At a distance, you can see South Padre Island, Texas, where space enthusiasts can safely watch the upcoming Super Heavy rocket launch.
Starbase: Spaceport of the future.
— John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos) August 29, 2021
Amazing experience flying over South Texas today with the Inspiration4 team. One L-39 and two Alpha Jets seen here, with me in another L-39 photo ship. pic.twitter.com/gBuoaOb9bp
Isaacman paid SpaceX for a three-day space tour aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. His space adventure is set to make history as the first all-civilian crew to ever visit space. He decided to make the voyage meaningful; the Inspiration4 mission is actually a massive fundraising effort for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Isaacman donated over $100 million and invited former St. Jude pediatric cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux to join the space adventure. They will launch to orbit alongside Dr. Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski who participated in a St. Jude fundraiser contest/donation raffle to join the mission. The crew is scheduled to liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Their adventure will be a Netflix documentary series that will premiere on September 6. “Never imagined a Netflix documentary when we kicked off Inspiration4 just 8 months ago,” Isaacman said, “Amazing how fast things come together. Proceeds from this directly benefit St.Jude & our $200 million fundraising objective.” The Netflix documentary series is called – Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space – it will be streamed in near real-time.
Stay tuned with Tesmanian.com for future SpaceX updates!
Well this is pretty incredible! I still can't believe there is a Netflix documentary on our @inspiration4x mission. Proceeds from this directly benefit @StJude and achieving our $200m fundraising goal. https://t.co/Xm3JhWvFFN
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 19, 2021
Featured Image Source: Elon Musk via Twitter
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
