Jared Isaacman, entrepreneur and philanthropist, leads SpaceX's historic all-civilian mission this year. He'll be joined by three remarkable civilians, making them the first to orbit Earth without a professional astronaut aboard.
You've likely heard about Inspiration4, SpaceX's groundbreaking first all-civilian mission. As founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments—and an accomplished pilot—Jared Isaacman will command a crew of four in a Crew Dragon capsule.
Isaacman donated the other three seats to give everyday people a shot at space travel, while raising funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, which provides free treatment for children battling cancer and other diseases.
One seat went to Hayley Arceneaux, a St. Jude employee who beat bone cancer there as a 10-year-old in 2002.
At 29, she'll make history as the first person with prosthetics in space, with metal rods replacing parts of her left tibia-fibula. She'll also become the youngest American in space, surpassing Sally Ride's record of 31 set in 1983.
The second crew member is Sian Proctor, 51, a professor at Community College of Tempe in Arizona.
Dr. Proctor came close to becoming a traditional astronaut, reaching the final 47 out of 3,500 NASA applicants in 2009. Though not selected among the nine chosen, she applied twice more without success.
When NASA opened applications again last year, she sat it out. "I felt that door had closed," she said. "But I hoped commercial space would open opportunities—and it came faster than I imagined!"
In 2013, she joined a NASA-funded Mars isolation simulation on a Hawaiian volcano, living with five others for four months to study long-duration spaceflight stresses.
The final seat belongs to Christopher Sembroski, 41, from Everett, Washington, a data engineer at Lockheed Martin.
Sembroski donated $50 to St. Jude in a raffle; his friend won but passed the seat to him, knowing his passion for space.
In college, he counseled at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, and volunteered with ProSpace, advocating for broader access to space.
Self-described as the "guy behind the scenes helping others shine," Sembroski is now center stage. "Everyone's doing it for me this time," he said. "It's a unique experience."
Shortly after selection, Dr. Proctor and Sembroski joined Isaacman at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles for facility tours and medical evaluations at the University of California.
On March 30, 2021, following the announcement at Kennedy Space Center, the crew trained in a Philadelphia centrifuge to simulate launch and re-entry forces. Their SpaceX regimen mirrors NASA astronauts' preparation for Crew Dragon flights.
In late April, Isaacman planned a three-day team-building camping trip on Mount Rainier, Washington, to build trust.
The mission will orbit at about 570 km altitude—130 km above the ISS. Originally set for October, launch could advance to September 15.
