SpaceX Civilian Passengers Heading Into Space This Year

Article by Anthony Cuthbertson                                        April 2, 2021                                         (msn.com)

• In the autumn of 2021, Jared Isaacman will sponsor and participate in the first-ever ‘all civilian’ three days in orbit commercial ‘Inspiration4 mission’ on a SpaceX Dragon rocket. Isaacman, 38, is himself a pilot and will serve as spacecraft commander.

• On Earth, Isaacman is the head of Shift4 Payments, a credit card-processing company in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is covering the bill for what will be SpaceX’s first private flight, while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Isaacman is donating $100 million to St. Jude. A lottery was created to offer other donors a chance to fly in space, raising another $13 million.

• In addition to the previously announced passenger Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a St. Jude physician assistant who was treated there as a child for bone cancer, two others were chosen by lottery. They are: Ms. Sian Proctor, 51, a college instructor and space art artist from Tempe, Arizona chosen by a panel of judges, and Mr. Chris Sembroski, 41, a former Air Force missileman from Everett Washington and Space Camp counsellor who took the place of a friend who declined to fly for personal reasons

• Proctor applied three times to Nasa’s astronaut corps, coming close in 2009, and took part in simulated Mars missions in Hawaii. She was born in Guam where her father worked at NASA’s tracking station for the Apollo mission moonshots. She plans to teach from space and create art up there, too. “To me, everything that I’ve done… has brought me to this moment,” she said.

• Their SpaceX Dragon capsule will launch no earlier than mid-September, aiming for an altitude of 335 miles. That’s about 75 miles higher than the International Space Station, on the same level with the Hubble Space Telescope.

• The next-generation SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is still undergoing testing and is yet to land successfully after flying to a high altitude. But other SpaceX flights using the craft are expected to follow the Inspiration4 mission before Elon Musk’s company begins commercial operations of its Starship vehicle.

• Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has already reserved the first Starship tickets for a trip around the Moon scheduled for 2023.

SpaceX has revealed the final members of its civilian crew who will take part in the

first-ever commercial space flight later this year.

The new passengers are Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Everett Washington. They will join flight sponsor Jared Isaacman and another passenger for three days in orbit this autumn.

Mr Isaacman also revealed some details about his Inspiration4 mission, as the four gathered at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center this

week. He’s head of Shift4 Payments, a credit card-processing company in Allentown,

Pennsylvania, and is paying for what would be SpaceX’s first private flight while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Their SpaceX Dragon capsule will launch no earlier than mid-September, aiming for an altitude of 540 kilometres (335 miles). That’s 120 kilometres higher than the International Space Station and on a level with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Mr Isaacman, 38, a pilot who will serve as spacecraft commander, did not reveal how much he’s paying. He’s donating $100 million to St. Jude, while donors so far have contributed $13 million, primarily through the lottery that offered a chance to fly in space.

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