SpaceX – Inspiration 4
With the joining of a 29-year-old bone cancer survivor in SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight is set to become the youngest American to be in space. One out of the four crew members on SpaceX Inspiration 4 is Hayley Arceneaux – who beat cancer as a child. This spaceflight is a program composed entirely of members of the public.
The other three members of her spaceflight are billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who is the sponsor of the mission, along with two yet-to-be-chosen contest winners. The name of Hayley Arceneaux came out of the “scores” of employees at St Jude’s Research Hospital where she works as a Physician assistant participating in Mr. Isaacman’s plans to raise $200m (£142m) for the hospital.
Cancer Survivor
When the mission will take off this autumn, 29-year-old will be the first to be one having a prosthesis. When a young American was 10 years of age, she had to go under knee surgery and got a titanium rod in her left thigh bone. Despite experiencing limps and occasional leg pain, she was cleared for the flight and will be serving as the crew’s medical officer.
Hayley Arceneaux thinks that she is prepared for space as her battle with cancer has already mentally prepared her for spaceflight. She also finds this as an opportunity to inspire other cancer survivors that “the sky is not even the limit anymore”. She said that small kids like her would enjoy the sight of seeing a survivor in space.
First Person Experience
She described that when she was at home last month in Memphis, Tennessee, she got a call out of the blue. And the immediate response to their offer was “Yes! Yes! Please!” but she wanted to involve her mom and brother & sister-in-law (both being an aerospace engineers) in this decision and everyone assured the safety of space travel.
Ms. Arceneaux said that being a lifelong space fan won’t leave her friends surprised and Mr. Isaacman believes her to be the perfect match. This mission is not to inspire people that they are going to be an astronaut someday, which not the idea. It is about an inspiring message that if one works well, there is everything you could accomplish on Earth. And with next month coming, the other two crew members will be revealed ahead of the targeted lift-off from Kennedy Space Centre in October.
