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SpaceX launches 4 amateurs on private Earth-circling trip

Part 1. Vocabulary

streak                   /strēk/ v

                              - move very fast in a specified direction

                              The cat leaped free and streaked across the street.

 

urge                      /ərj/ v

                              - try earnestly or persistently to persuade (someone) to do something

                              She urged her to come and stay with us in the city.

 

dub                       /dəb/ v

                              - give an unofficial name or nickname to (someone or something)

                              The media dubbed anorexia “the slimming disease”.

                             

altitude                /ˈaltəˌt(y)o͞od/ n

                              - the height of an object or point in relation to sea level or ground level.

The flight data includes airspeed and altitude.

 

reluctant              /rəˈləktənt/ adj

                              - unwilling and hesitant; disinclined

                              Many people are reluctant to travel because of the pandemic.


Part 2. Comprehension Questions

1.      What was the spacecraft that circled Earth with the all-amateur crew with no professional astronauts?

2.      Who is the founder of SpaceX?

3.      Who is the youngest American to travel into space with prostheses?

4.      What were the jobs of the other passengers in the SpaceX flight?

5.      In general, how did SpaceX first private flight go?

 

Part 3. Article Reading

 

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX’s first private flight streaked into orbit Wednesday night with two contest winners, a health care worker, and their rich sponsor, the most ambitious leap yet in space tourism.

It was the first time a spacecraft circled Earth with an all-amateur crew and no professional astronauts.

“Punch it, SpaceX!” the flight's billionaire leader, Jared Isaacman, urged moments before liftoff.

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.

It’s SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s first entry in the competition for space tourism dollars.

Isaacman, 38, made his fortune with a payment-processing company he started in his teens. He's the third billionaire to launch this summer, following the brief space-skimming flights by Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos in July.

Joining Isaacman on the trip dubbed Inspiration4 is Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a childhood bone cancer survivor who works as a physician assistant where she was treated — St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Isaacman has pledged $100 million out of his own pocket to the hospital and is seeking another $100 million in donations.

Arceneaux became the youngest American in space and the first person in space with a prosthesis, a titanium rod in her left leg.

Also along for the ride: sweepstakes winners Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona.

The recycled Falcon rocket soared from the same Kennedy Space Center pad used by the company’s three previous astronaut flights for NASA. But this time, the Dragon capsule aimed for an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers), just beyond the Hubble Space Telescope.

Across the country, SpaceX employees at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, cheered wildly at every flight milestone, including when the spent first-stage booster landed upright on an ocean platform.

An accomplished pilot, he persuaded SpaceX to take the Dragon capsule higher than it’s ever been. Initially reluctant because of the increased radiation exposure and other risks, SpaceX agreed after a safety review.

Source: Marcia Dunn, Thu, September 16, 2021, https://news.yahoo.com/

 

 

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