SpaceX to Carry All-Civilian Crew in Space Flight SpaceX will make history this week when the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Resilience spacecraft carry the first all-civilian crew into orbit.
By Emily Rella
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Elon Musk's SpaceX will make history this week when the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Resilience spacecraft carry the first all-civilian crew into orbit. The mission is called Inspiration4.
According to the Inspiration4 website, the four crew members will represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity. The flight won't launch before Sept. 15 and will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments.
Inspiration4 is named in recognition of the crew who will raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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Isaacman will be representing the pillar of leadership. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux is representing hope. Chris Sembroski, who has supported the St. Jude mission of finding cures and saving children, will represent generosity.
Prosperity will be represented by Dr. Sian Proctor, an entrepreneur who used Shift4Shop to launch her business.
According to an August press release, the crew is in final preparation stages for the launch. Inspiration4 will be the first worldwide crewed flight not to dock with a space station since the final Hubble servicing mission in May of 2009.
The mission is set to last about three days. The target altitude is 360 miles.
The crew will also participate in a health research initiative with Baylor College of Medicine's Translational Research Institute for Space Health and investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine to study the impact of spaceflight on the human body.
