Jared Isaacman, entrepreneur and philanthropist, will travel with SpaceX this year on an all-civilian mission. Three people will accompany him on this crazy adventure. Together, they will therefore be the first to orbit the planet without the presence of a professional astronaut.
You've probably heard of it. Jared Isaacman, Founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, will travel this year with SpaceX on the first all-civilian mission of the company, called Inspiration4. The contractor, who is also a pilot, will command a crew of four aboard a Crew Dragon capsule.
The billionaire donated the other three available seats. Through this project, Isaacman said he wants to give non-billionaires a chance to take a ride in space. He also intends to raise funds for St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis which treats children for cancer and other illnesses free of charge.
One of these seats, we have known for several weeks, has been awarded to Hayley Arceneaux , one of the employees of this hospital. It was this same institution that treated her for bone cancer in 2002 when she was only ten years old.
Hayley Arceneaux will become the first person equipped with prosthetics to go into space . Metal rods indeed replace certain parts of his left tibia-fibula. Finally, at 29, she will also be the youngest American to fly in space, blowing the record away from astronaut Sally Ride, who was only 31 for her first flight in 1983.
The second lucky one is Sian Proctor , 51, professor at the Community University of Tempe (Arizona).
Dr. Proctor had almost become an old-fashioned astronaut. In 2009, she was one of the 47 finalists selected by NASA from 3,500 applications . The space agency ultimately chose nine new astronauts, but she wasn't one of them. She then applied twice more, still without success.
Finally, when NASA announced another round of requests last year, Dr. Proctor didn't even commit. "I was like, 'No,' because I felt like that door had closed “, she explains. “But I was really hopeful that in my life, commercial space might be available for me. On the other hand, I never would have imagined that it would come like this and so quickly! “.
In 2013, Sian Proctor also integrated a group of six people who lived for four months in a small building on the side of a Hawaiian volcano. Funded by NASA, this experiment aimed to study the effects of the isolation and stress inherent in a long trip to Mars on the human mind.
Finally, the last seat goes to Christopher Sembroski , 41, from Everett, Washington. The latter works on data engineering for Lockheed Martin.
Sembroski had simply donated fifty US dollars to the hospital and he was not supposed to go into space. In reality, it was a friend of his who won the loot. The latter, who wishes to remain anonymous, finally decided not to go into space. Knowing his friend's interest in this environment, he offered him the prize.
While in college, Christopher Sembroski worked as a counselor at Space Camp, an educational program in Huntsville, Alabama that provides children and families with a taste of life in 'astronaut. He also volunteered for ProSpace, a nonprofit advocacy group that pushed to open space to more people.
Mr. Sembroski, who describes himself as the "guy always behind the scenes, who wants to help others achieve their goals and take center stage “, finds himself in the spotlight today, a little uncomfortable. "Everyone do it for me this time “, he explained. "And it's a completely different and unique experience “.
Days after hearing the news, Dr. Proctor and Mr. Sembroski accompanied Jared Isaacman to Los Angeles to visit SpaceX headquarters and undergo health assessments at the University of California.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021, after the official announcement at Kennedy Space Center, the four crew members traveled to Philadelphia to integrate a giant centrifuge, simulating the strong forces that they will experience during launch and re-entry into the atmosphere. Their training at SpaceX in California will also be similar to that of NASA astronauts flying SpaceX rockets .
At the end of April, Isaacman also plans to take them for three days of camping on Mount Rainier in Washington so that everyone can get to know and trust each other.
On D-Day, the capsule and its occupants will circle the Earth at approximately 570 km altitude , about 130 km higher than the International Space Station. Initially scheduled for next October, the launch date could be brought forward to September 15 .
