SpaceX Inspiration4 will bring the first crew made up exclusively of civilians into orbit

Flying in space, you know, is the dream of many people. Lately, this dream has also come true for a small group of people whose curriculum does not even include the voice "astronaut", but that of "billionaire" absolutely. Characters like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have already crowned their "space dream", while Elon Musk, patron of the SpaceX project, has not yet succeeded in his intent, but intends to send an entire crew of non-professional cosmonauts forward first, the Inspiration4 mission.



Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments, an online payment company, has purchased all four available seats aboard Musk's SpaceX Space Program CrewDragon spacecraft, in fact becoming the "commander" of Inspiration4, the first orbital mission composed entirely by a crew of non-professionals!

Isaacman is a personality already quite well known in the world, passionate about space exploration, qualified pilot for commercial jets and military, charity event organizer and, among other things, founder of Draken International, the largest private air force in the world, capable of training re also the best pilots on behalf of the U.S. Armed Forces But who are his companions in adventure?



The selection for the three vacant crew members was decided differently. One of them would have been chosen via a simple lottery. This fortune fell to Chris Sembroski, a NASA space mission consultant and former US Air Force soldier who, once discharged, earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering. By making a donation to St. Jude Childrens Memorial Hospital in Memphis, he automatically entered the lottery with a seat on the Inspiration4 team up for grabs. Given that it was won by a friend of his and best man who, for personal reasons, did not want to "collect" the prize, effectively giving it to Sembroski.

The other place in the team if it is awarded instead, Sian Proctor, a graduate of environmental science, masters of geology and a teacher at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix. Sian, also passionate about space exploration and daughter of one of the engineers who worked at NASA during the Apollo 11 mission, won the competition that involved the design of an online store for Shift4 Payments. A simple email told her that she would soon be going to space. Definitely a welcome message!

The latest member of the mission is Hayley Arceneaux, medical assistant at St, Jude, a hospital that had already saved her life when, as a child, she was diagnosed with a serious form of osteosarcoma, a variant of bone cancer. Being part of the hospital staff was the last of the requirements specified by Isaacman to be able to participate in the mission. Having a knee completely reconstructed in titanium, the experience of Arceneaux will be invaluable in studying the behavior of the prostheses during space missions, data also useful to NASA (whose jackets are available at this link) to outline the profiles of future crews of the missions. .



Barring unforeseen events, the Inspiration4 mission should start next September. We therefore send our best wishes to this historic crew of "amateurs in danger"!