In just four days, SpaceX will launch an astronaut into space. As the company announces, a crew of four private citizens will take off in a Crew Dragon spacecraft Wednesday (Sept. 15) for a three-day trip around the Earth, called Inspiration4.
The Inspiration4 mission will be all-civilian with SpaceX providing live updates
Learn more about Inspiration4: When and what to do
The following are the top 10 things you need to know about SpaceX's Private Civilian Mission.
Image Source: Inspiration4/John Kraus
1) The first non-commercial space flight
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will carry four private citizens into space for the first time - and no professional astronauts. SpaceX is sending its fourth crew on this mission, but instead of astronauts from NASA and international partners, the passengers will be four regular people.
There has always been a professional astronaut present on every previous orbital space tourism flight (and on any future missions with announced crew members) to train passengers on the drama of launch, microgravity, and landing.
2) Meet the crew
Isaacman purchased the flight from Shift4 Payments, a company founded by a billionaire named Jared Isaacman.
Hayley Arceneaux is also with him, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where she was once a patient. He is a pediatric bone cancer survivor who will serve as the plane's medical officer. As she has a metal rod in her leg to replace bone removed due to a tumor, she will be the first person to fly into space with a prosthesis.
Pilot Sian Proctor is a professor of geosciences at South Mountain Community College in Arizona and a science communicator who has dreamed of going to space since she was a young girl. During the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first humans on the moon, Proctor's father worked for NASA at a tracking station in Guam. The NASA astronaut application for the class of 2009 did not lead to Proctor's selection as an astronaut. Before she got the call from Inspiration4, she thought her dreams of going to space would never come true.
Lockheed Martin employee Chris Sembroski is a veteran of the Air Force. As a mission specialist for the flight, he will draw on his experience working with Space Camp. After making a donation to St. Jude through a fundraising campaign organized as part of Inspiration4, Sembroski won the seat.
3) Fundraising efforts
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is seeking $200 million through Inspiration4 mission. Rather than just another billionaire spaceflight, Isaacman envisioned the mission as something that would make a real difference to children with cancer, so he led a campaign to raise money and awareness.
Image Source: Inspiration4/John Kraus
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In addition to the 100 million dollars, Isaacman also donated two other Dragon spacecraft seats directly to St. Jude. Among these went to Arceneaux, who the hospital selected as a front-line employee. One seat was designated to a winner drawn randomly from the sweepstakes entries collected by the cancer institute which raised $13 million. As a result of a friend of the astronauts (who was actually selected) deciding not to go to space, Embroski was selected.
Using Isaacman's Shift4 Payments platform, Proctor set up online stores to raise money for St. Jude as part of a "Shark Tank"-like a contest. The contestants had to set up shops and campaigns on Twitter. It was more likely that their videos would make it to the finals if they received more interaction on Twitter.
4) When is it launching?
Image Source: Inspiration4/John Kraus
According to representatives from SpaceX and Inspiration4, the mission can launch any time, but the exact launch time will depend on weather forecasts from the 45th Weather Squadron for both launch and landing sites.
4) Where is the crew going?
Instead of going to the International Space Station, the crew will fly around the Earth. This is a different route from the capsule's previous flight, during which it transported astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.
Due to the absence of a docking port, SpaceX replaced this structure with a dome window that will provide breathtaking views of the Earth to the crew.
6) How long will they be in space?
Approximately three days will pass in space before the crew splashes down off Florida's coast.
7) When and what will the crew be doing?
The Inspiration4 mission is comprised entirely of regular people, not professional astronauts, so they haven't been subjected to the same rigorous medical disqualification procedure that NASA and other agencies go through during astronaut selection. Throughout the mission, the Inspiration4 crew will conduct medical experiments and record health data in order to make human spaceflights safer and easier in the future.
8) Where are they launching from?
In Florida, Inspiration4 will launch from Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX operates two launch pads in Florida, including this one, which has hosted three previous crew missions.
Prior to being turned over to SpaceX, Pad 39A was also used for most of NASA's space shuttle missions between 1981 and 2011. During the Apollo 11 moon mission, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched from the same launch pad, making them the first humans to walk on the moon.
9) How will they get to space?
Isaacman, Arceneaux, Proctor, and Sembroski will board a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket, both of which have flown before.
Known as B1062, the rocket has conducted two previous flights in which it launched GPS satellites for the U.S. Space Force. Those astronauts, as well as the Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, were transported into space by the Dragon capsule with the Crew-1 mission last November and returned to Earth six months later.
10) What will they take with them?
The crew will be auctioning off items that they will take with them, as well as taking personal items up with them since Inspiration4 is part of a massive fundraising campaign.
According to the mission statement, items include mission jackets featuring artwork made by St. Jude patients, a Fisher Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Space Pen and Coin Set containing material from Apollo 11, a Martin Guitar ukulele that Chris Sembroski will use in space, and much more.
Additionally, Arceneaux will present a non-fungible token, or NFT, of a never-before-released performance by Kings of Leon during the flight. One of the NFTs onboard will replicate an artwork that had previously been sent to the Mariana Trench, making it the first artwork to reach both the deepest part of the ocean and orbit at the same time.