Musk Pledges $50 Million to Children's Charity Inspiration4, the first-ever tourism mission into space, launched Wednesday morning.
By Emily Rella
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Elon Musk pledged on Saturday to donate $50 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, helping exceed the $200 million fundraising goal of last week's Inspiration4 space mission.
"Count me in for $50M," the SpaceX founder tweeted after the account for Inspiration4 tweeted that the all-civilian crew was back on Earth and still soliciting donations to hit the $200 million mark.
Inspiration4, the first-ever tourism mission into space, launched Wednesday morning. Four people were onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which departed from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew came back down off the coast of Florida.
According to a release from SpaceX, the spaceflight mission launched at 8:02 p.m ET Wednesday. A second release confirmed the splashdown occurred at 7:06 p.m. ET Saturday. The crew spent six months training for the mission, which is expected to last about three days.
The crew set a number of records for spaceflight, including featuring the first Black female spacecraft pilot, the youngest American in space and the first person to fly to space with a prosthetic. It was the farthest flight for a human spaceflight since the Hubble missions and the first time SpaceX has operated three Dragons in space.
At the time of splashdown, the flight's fundraising stood at $154 million.
