Inspiration4 mission names 2nd crew member
29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, who will fly as the youngest-ever spaceflight participant as part of the Inspiration4 mission later in 2021. Credit: St. Jude
The first all-civilian spaceflight to orbit has officially announced its second crew member. Cancer survivor and frontline healthcare worker for St. Jude, Hayley Arceneaux, will join commander Jared Isaacman as part of the four-person crew heading to space in late 2021.
Arceneaux was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer at the age of 10. She was admitted to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where she received life-saving surgery on her leg as well as chemotherapy. At just 29 years old, Haley could become the youngest American to ever fly in space.
“It’s an incredible honor to join the Inspiration4 crew,” Arceneaux said in a news release. “This seat represents the hope that St. Jude gave me, and continues to give families from around the world, who, like me, find hope when they walk through the doors of St. Jude. When I was just 10 years old, St. Jude gave me the opportunity to grow up. Now I am fulfilling my dreams of working at the research hospital and traveling around the world. It’s incredible to be a part of this mission that is not only raising crucial funds for the lifesaving work of St. Jude but also introducing new supporters to the mission and showing cancer survivors that anything is possible.”
The four seats making up the Inspiration4 mission are each named after four core values carried by the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity. Arceneaux will be filling the “hope” seat.
Isaacman will occupy the seat called “leadership,” representing his personal leadership as commander, as well as St. Jude’s leadership in pediatric cancer research. The remaining two seats known as generosity, and prosperity, will be picked from applicants in the general public.
Generosity will be chosen randomly from those that have donated to St. Jude via the Inspiration4 donation raffle. The prosperity seat will be occupied by the winner of a Shift4Shop contest.
As of now, the Inspiration4 mission is expected to fly into space using the Crew Dragon “Resilience,” which is currently docked to the International Space Station. The mission is slated to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket in late 2021. The four-person crew are scheduled to circle the planet for several days before returning to Earth.
Video courtesy of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Cullen Desforges
Having a life-long interest in crewed space flight, Desforges’ passion materialized on a family vacation in 1999 when he was able see the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-96. Since then, Desforges has been an enthusiast of space exploration efforts. He lived in Orlando, Florida for a year, during which time he had the opportunity to witness the flights of the historic CRS-4 and EFT-1 missions in person at Cape Canaveral. He earned his Private Pilot Certificate in 2017, holds a degree in Aviation Management, and currently works as an Operations Analyst in the aviation industry in Georgia.
great news !!my Daughter who will be thirteen in October is very interested and wants to know more how she can get involved??