We may never get to go to space ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we can’t pretend.
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 — the world’s first all-civilian space flight — touched safely back down on Earth five days ago after a successful three-day mission. We’d already been treated to some stunning official images when the crew were in orbit, but since they landed they’ve been steadily posting more footage and images on their social media pages too.
Check out this video taken by mission commander Jared Isaacman, the Shift4 Payments founder who financed Inspiration4. It was filmed through the spacecraft’s cupola, the transparent viewing dome that was specially added to the Crew Dragon in place of a docking port (they didn’t need to dock anywhere, after all, but they did need a place to capture some awesome footage).
Kudos to Isaacman for lugging that Xenomorph from Alien toy up into space, even if he concluded that it probably wasn’t worth the effort in the end.
Watch the moment SpaceX launched the first ever civilian spaceflight
That isn’t the only video that’s been shared, either. Isaacman was joined onboard Inspiration4 by three other crew members — physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux, aerospace data engineer and Air Force veteran Christopher Sembroski, and geoscientist Dr. Sian Proctor — and they all clearly put their smartphones to good use while up in orbit.
Here’s the moment Dr. Proctor filmed them opening the cupola hatch for the first time, where you can literally see the awe on their faces as they gaze out at Earth.
And here’s an awesome 360 degree view through the cupola from Arceneaux.
Sembroski also took some great footage, including an aerial view of Australia and some storm spirals over Earth.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the alien wasn’t the only toy that made it into space. Sembroski also took a Funko Pop that resulted in Funko making a donation to St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital (St Jude’s was the charitable beneficiary of the mission).
Glorious.
You can find out more about the mission on the official Inspiration4 website, and browse all the official images on Flickr.