No professional astronaut on board as SpaceX readies to send into orbit a crew made up entirely of complete novices, for the first time on Wednesday
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, will be the mission commander as the crew vehicle is set for blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.
SpaceX is ready to send a crew into orbit sans professional astronaut onboard for the first time on Wednesday. The crew is made up entirely of complete novices. The four passengers are supposed to embody the opening-up of space to everyone, giving the mission its name: Inspiration4. Hayley Arceneaux, is a cancer survivor, Sian Proctor is a professor and astronaut candidate, and Chris Sembroski is an Air Force vet.
The 38-year-old American Jared Isaacman, is the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. He created this when he was 16 from the basement of his family home. He offers stores and restaurants services for processing bank card transactions.
In 2012, he founded a company providing training to US Air Force pilots called Draken International.
He chartered the mission at his own expense, inviting these three persons to join him, via a rather original selection process. Each seat has been assigned to represent a specific value. Although passionate about piloting, he holds a record for flying around the world in a light jet and is qualified to fly several military aircraft. He has always been passionate about space exploration.
Arceneaux was treated for bone cancer as a child at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for which Jared Isaacman organized a fundraiser. At 29, she will be the youngest American to be sent into orbit around the Earth, and the first person with a prosthesis to go into space
In 2008, he witnessed the take off, aboard a Russian rocket in Kazakhstan, of one of the first private tourists to visit the International Space Station, Richard Garriott. It was after that experience that he contacted SpaceX.
Arceneaux was treated for bone cancer as a child at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for which Jared Isaacman organized a fundraiser. At 29, she will be the youngest American to be sent into orbit around the Earth, and the first person with a prosthesis to go into space.
Medical manager for the mission, her seat represents “hope.”
Proctor, 51, teaches geology at a college in Arizona. Her father worked at NASA during the Apollo missions. She participated in an experiment in Hawaii simulating life on Mars, and twice applied to NASA to become an astronaut.
Her seat represents “prosperity.” She created an online sales site linked to space as part of an entrepreneurial competition organized by Isaacman’s company.
The pilot of the mission, assisting the commander, in 2009, she was among a few dozen finalists out of more than 3,500 candidates. She will be only the fourth African American woman to go into space.
A 42-year-old US Air Force veteran who served in Iraq, Sembroski now works in the aeronautics industry, for Lockheed Martin in Washington state. He had made a donation as part of a fundraiser for St. Jude’s Hospital.
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