Crew of world's 1st all-civilian orbital mission returns to Earth

NEW YORK, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Four crew members of the world's first all-civilian orbital mission returned to Earth on Saturday evening with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Kennedy Space Center, Florida, said a press release by the mission Inspiration4.

The astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft developed by American private space company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) spent three days orbiting Earth.

The mission also set a few other records such as carrying the first black female spacecraft pilot, the youngest American in space, and the first person to fly to space with a prosthetic, the farthest flight for a human spaceflight since the Hubble missions and others, according to the release.

"Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us, and that everyday people can make extraordinary impacts in the world around them," said Kris Young, space operations director at SpaceX mission control.

So far, the mission has raised nearly 154 million U.S. dollars for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, short of the target of 200 million U.S. dollars.

Inspiration4 was launched into space on Wednesday night from Kennedy Space Center, making headway in commercial space tourism.