For millions of kids who grew up sometime between the 1950’s until the 1990’s, if someone asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, there’s a reasonable chance they would say “astronaut.” Now there will be four lucky private individuals who can actually live that dream if they want to. Without having to train at NASA for years or become pilots.
SpaceX announced Monday that they will launch four civilians on a Crew Dragon capsule for an orbit around the Earth. It is scheduled for liftoff later this year.
The person commanding the flight will be Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. On board with Isaacman will be three other “crew members” who will be chosen to represent what the company refers to as mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity. The mission will be raising funds to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, about as good of a cause as you will find on earth. Or space. “Inspiration4 is the realization of a lifelong dream and a step towards a future in which anyone can venture out and explore the stars,” Isaacman said. “I appreciate the tremendous responsibility that comes with commanding this mission and I want to use this historic moment to inspire humanity while helping to tackle childhood cancer here on Earth,” the statement continued.
So who’s going into space with him? He gave St. Jude two of the seats, and the other two will go to the winner of an online competition. Details are on the Inspiration4 website.
The crew will be trained by SpaceX rocket scientists, who’s job it is to get these civilians space ready. It will be what SpaceX calls a “multi-day journey around the earth. It will end with the Dragon spacecraft reentering the Earth’s atmosphere and landing into the water off the coast of Florida.
It’s not like Elon Musk is handing four novices keys to a $100 million rocket and telling them to have fun, Isaacman is a trained, and highly-skilled pilot. He has flown in over 100 airshows and each time, he’s donated his fees and proceeds from the performances to charitable causes. Make A Wish has been one the foundations he’s benefited in the past, and there’s a good reason Isaacman and Musk chose St. Jude this time. “The same year St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital broke boundaries by opening its doors, the first American orbited the Earth in 1962,” explained Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude.
Isaacman is the real hero in this story. He’s funding the mission himself, and it was his idea to raffle off the other seats, in an attempt to raise up to $200 million for the children’s hospital. “You’re gonna have four people that are going to know each other incredibly well before the launch,” Isaacman said. He’s an avid mountain-climber too, and he said he may ask the crew to participate in an extreme camping trip as part of their training.
Watch for an ad about the mission during the Super Bowl this Sunday. Heck, if it goes well, maybe in future years the NFL could team with SpaceX. Since it’s impossible for Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, or whoever wins the Super Bowl MVP award to actually go to Disneyland now, as California Governor Gavin Newsom has kept it closed for almost a year, maybe they take the MVP promo next level and the winner can say “I’m going to orbit the earth on a SpaceX rocket for four days!”
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