— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2021 The modified Crew Dragon features a large, three-layer plexiglass dome known as the Dragon Cupola. A tweet from SpaceX provides an image of the window, giving us an idea of what the astronauts will be seeing. Given the limited space in Resilience, this same area will serve double duty as the toilet—albeit a toilet with an astronomical view. A curtain will allow for privacy when the astronauts perform their business up there. When not drooling at Earth or space pooping, the crew can spend some time on personal activities. For Proctor, a geology teacher with a lifelong ambition of becoming an astronaut, that will involve painting in watercolor and writing poetry. Sembroski, a U.S. Air Force veteran and data engineer, plans to play his ukulele and serenade the crew (the old Alien tagline, “In space no one can hear you scream,” may suddenly become very pertinent). The crew will also eat together, including special comfort foods brought for each member. Proctor, for example, is looking forward to some cold pizza. There is some serious business to be done, however. The crew will perform a number of health-related experiments, such as tracking ECG activity, running blood tests, and performing balance and perception tests. As for piloting duties, the crew won’t have to worry about that, as the Crew Dragon operates autonomously. That said, the crew could step in and execute emergency commands should the situation require. After three days of this, the Crew Dragon will perform a re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and splash down off the coast of Florida. The soft landing is scheduled for around 7:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, September 18. The Inspiration4 mission has already led to some interesting records and milestones. This is SpaceX’s fourth crewed Crew Dragon mission but the first with no NASA astronauts onboard. Inspiration4 is the first mission since the 2009 STS-125 Space Shuttle mission in which astronauts have gone into orbit but didn’t dock with the ISS. Circling 363.5 miles (585 km) above Earth, this is the farthest that astronauts have been since those Shuttle missions to repair Hubble. This is also a distance record for Crew Dragon. With yesterday’s launch, the human population of low Earth orbit is now 14—and that’s a record. The previous record, 13, happened in 2009, when the Space Shuttle Endeavor docked to the ISS. The 14 astronauts currently in space include three Chinese astronauts aboard the new Tiangong space station, the seven members of ISS Expedition 65, and the four Inspiration4 crew members. Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly described Hayley Arceneaux as a nurse assistant. Daily Newsletter