Final crew members named for ‘all-civilian’ Inspiration4 mission
SpaceX is developing a special window to take the place of the docking port for Inspiration4. Credit: SpaceX
Billed as the first “all-civilian” trip into space, the full crew complement of the Inspiration4 mission has been revealed.
Announced in February 2021 by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Shift4 Payments founder and CEO Jared Isaacman, four people, including Isaacman, are expected into orbit aboard Crew Dragon “Resilience” from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A as early as September.
Resilience is currently in orbit supporting the Crew-1 International Space Station mission and is expected to return to Earth in early May.
The Inspiration4 mission is expected to last about 72 hours and fly solo to an altitude of about 540 kilometers.
Inspiration4 was paid for by Isaacman and he’ll be the commander for the mission, but he gave away the three remaining seats aboard Crew Dragon. One was dedicated to the winner of a Shift4 Shop competition. The other two were given to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in an effort to raise $200 million dollars for the organization, which is dedicated to treating pediatric cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
St. Jude is on a multi-billion dollar expansion to further its efforts for research and developments to help save more children’s lives and provide support for their families as they battle these life threatening diseases.
The Inspiration4 crew. From left to right: Chris Sembroski, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Jared Isaacman. Credit: SpaceX
One of the St. Jude seats went to St. Jude ambassador Hayley Arceneaux. She is a physician at the very hospital that saved her life as a child.
The other St. Jude seat was to be raffled off via a raffle to those who donated to St. Jude, which was part of the $200 million dollar fundraising campaign for the Hospital, which Isaacman said he hoped to be “the single largest fundraising campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.”
Isaacman kicked-off the campaign with a $100 million dollar donation. The initiative included other reward perks, such as flights in a military jet and flight gear.
The winner of the raffle was Chris Sembroski. According to his bio on Inspiration4’s website, he served in the U.S. Air Force, maintained a fleet of Minuteman missiles and was deployed to service in Iraq before leaving active duty in 2007.
Sembroski then earned a bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He currently works in the aerospace industry and resides in Seattle.
The winner of the Shift4 Shop competition was Sian Proctor, a scientists and space communicator, passionate space advocate and finalist for the 2009 NASA astronaut program.
Proctor is a geoscientist and explorer. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, a master’s degree in geology and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction: science education.
According to Today, over 70,000 applications were submitted for this opportunity, it will takes months to complete the tabulation of all the personal and corporate donations to see how close they came to raising $200 million dollars for St. Jude.
Video courtesy of Inspiration4
Theresa Cross
Theresa Cross grew up on the Space Coast. It’s only natural that she would develop a passion for anything “Space” and its exploration. During these formative years, she also discovered that she possessed a talent and love for defining the unique quirks and intricacies that exist in mankind, nature, and machines. Hailing from a family of photographers—including her father and her son, Theresa herself started documenting her world through pictures at a very early age. As an adult, she now exhibits an innate photographic ability to combine what appeals to her heart and her love of technology to deliver a diversified approach to her work and artistic presentations. Theresa has a background in water chemistry, fluid dynamics, and industrial utility.
