- The last two crew members have been announced for Inspiration4’s civilian mission to orbit the Earth.
- Dr. Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski were appointed as additional crew members for the SpaceX spacecraft.
- They will join Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux on the mission in September.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
In an announcement earlier this week, SpaceX’s Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian rocket to orbit the Earth, revealed the last two members of the four-person crew that will take a historic trip into space.
Chris Sembroski and Dr. Sian Proctor were the two additional people who won seats on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
They will accompany Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux on the mission, where the four will travel aboard the Dragon spacecraft to be launched into orbit by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX is planning a takeoff not earlier than September 15. The spacecraft will depart from Kennedy Space Center 39A Launch Complex.
It is expected to orbit the Earth for three days at an altitude of approximately 335 miles, where the crew will eventually land on the Florida coast for recovery.
Here’s what we know about the four crew members
Jared Isaacman
An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Isaacman is a 38-year-old technology billionaire, pilot and chief executive of Shift4 Payments, a Pennsylvania-based payment processing company. He will charter the flight.
Although he said he spent more than 6,000 hours flying in jets and ex-military planes, he was never in space. Neither did his three fellow travelers, as Insider reported earlier.
Isaacman had several goals when planning this mission: to give a diverse community of individuals the opportunity to fly into space and raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
“The stars really lined up for us in terms of that group,” he told The New York Times.
“We promise the crew to represent some of the best humanitarian qualities, exemplifying our ideals of mission leadership, hope, prosperity and generosity. And I am pleased to report that we have achieved this goal, ”he said.
Isaacman will be the commander of the SpaceX mission.
Hayley Arceneaux
Announced in early February, Arceneaux is the second civilian to join the crew, a child cancer survivor and a medical assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research.
At 10, Arceneaux had part of his femur removed from bone cancer. There are many sports activities that she cannot practice for fear of risking an uncontrolled fall. This is because of a metal rod in his left leg, which was implanted during his treatment for bone cancer as a child.
But now she has a chance to break free of all limitations. In an interview with Insider, she said that her orthopedic surgeon told her, “There will be no limits for you in space.”
Arceneaux will be the youngest American to fly into space and the first with a body prosthesis.
SpaceX Starship SN8 flight test in December 2020.
SpaceX / Twitter
Sian Proctor
Proctor, a geoscientist, scientific communication specialist and analogue astronaut, is one of the newest crew members aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Proctor secured his spot after winning a contest sponsored by Isaacman’s e-commerce company, Today reported.
The contest required all participants to design an online store using Shift4 Payments software and then tweet a video describing their space fantasies, according to The New York Times.
Proctor told Business Wire, “This opportunity is proof that hard work and perseverance can pay in unimaginable ways,” said Dr. Proctor. “I always believed I was getting ready for something special, and that moment came with Inspiration4.
His excitement was palpable in an interview with Tom Costello of Today’s. “It’s like opening the chocolate bar and seeing the golden ticket for Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory!” she said.
Chris Sembroski
Joining the other three members is Sembroski, 41, a Lockheed Martin employee and veteran of the Air Force.
Sembroski was selected from nearly 72,000 entries in a fundraising campaign for St. Jude. He will act as a mission specialist, assisting payloads and scientific experiments during the flight.
“Joining the Inspiration4 crew and their mission to support St. Jude is truly a dream come true. It is my hope that this flight will inspire others to pay for this generosity, promising their support to St. Jude and encouraging children to dream impossible, ushering in a new era of space exploration open to everyone, “he said in a statement.
Sembroski first heard about the mission through an announcement during this year’s Super Bowl event.
“That was kind of intriguing,” he told The New York Times. “And then, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m going to donate to St. Jude and throw my name on the hat to see what happens.'”
The Inspiration4 crew will undergo training as a commercial astronaut by SpaceX. They will receive emergency preparedness training, as well as partial and complete stimulation for the mission.
“It’s about mental toughness,” Isaacman told The New York Times. “Getting uncomfortable, staying uncomfortable – and how you act when you’re uncomfortable.”