At just 29 years old, Hayley Arceneaux—a physician assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor—is poised to become one of the youngest Americans to reach space aboard a SpaceX mission.
Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, will lead SpaceX's first all-civilian mission, Inspiration4, this year. The 37-year-old entrepreneur and pilot will command a crew of four aboard a Crew Dragon capsule.
The billionaire is donating the remaining three seats. One has gone to a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital employee in Memphis, USA, which provides free treatment for children with cancer and other diseases.
That honoree is Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude, the same hospital that treated her bone cancer in 2002 when she was 10. She'll also be the first person with a prosthetic limb in space, as noted by the New York Times. Metal rods replace parts of her left tibia and fibula.
Private SpaceX flights are opening space to people with disabilities. Similarly, disabled athlete Philippe Croizon may soon fly on a Crew Dragon thanks to Elon Musk.
"I hope to show [childhood cancer patients] that the sky isn’t even the limit. They can do anything. I never thought I could go to space. Until now, you had to be in peak physical condition. This mission changes that."
Arceneaux will also be the youngest American in space, surpassing astronaut Sally Ride's record of 31 during her 1983 flight. Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov remains the youngest overall at under 26 on Vostok 2 in August 1961.
A second seat will go to a public raffle winner for fundraising. Isaacman has pledged $100 million from his fortune to St. Jude. Learn more at the Inspiration4 website.
SpaceX's "Resilience" Crew Dragon—currently docked at the ISS after breaking a 47-year-old record—will launch atop a Falcon 9 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will orbit Earth for two to four days before splashing down at sea, without docking at the ISS.
