Launching Civilians to Space: The Inspiration4 SpaceX Mission
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket, which will be used to launch the Inspiration4 crew to space (Credit: Inspiration4)
In 2021, the commercial space industry will reach yet another crucial milestone: the first all-civilian flight to space. The Inspiration4 mission operated by SpaceX—and facilitated by a hefty donation from billionaire Jared Isaacman—will launch four civilians on a multi-day journey across low earth orbit. The dual purpose of the venture is to raise funds and awareness for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, as well as promote Shift4 Payments, a company led and founded by Isaacman.
On February 1st, the news first broke that the American billionaire is buying an entire SpaceX flight to take himself and three guests on a trip around the planet. Unlike any other spaceflight in history, this would be the first orbital flight not to include professional astronauts on board. Jared Isaacman will command the mission as the leader and benefactor, with three more civilians selected to fill the seats nicknamed Hope, Prosperity, and Generosity. The crew will travel in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 Rocket. The capsule is designed to fly autonomously, which is ideal for an all-civilian mission to space.
In the following weeks, the remainder of the crew was consolidated and publicly announced. Inspiration4 revealed Hayley Arceneaux as the winner of the Hope seat. Arceneaux is a 29-year-old bone cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when she was 10 years old and received treatment at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. After years of treatment and a successful battle against the disease, she now works as a Physician’s Assistant at the Children’s Hospital. Arceneaux’s story of hope and success is meant to raise awareness of childhood cancer as she represents St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the historic spaceflight. On March 30th, the final two crew members were announced: Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran, was selected from nearly 27,000 donors to the St. Jude Hospital to fill the Generosity seat. Dr. Sian Proctor, a geocentrism and science communication specialist, was selected for the Prosperity seat by winning a contest of entrepreneurs to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital using Isaacman’s Shift4 Payments platform. In all, the mission seeks to raise $200 million for St. Jude, half of which will come from Isaacman’s personal donations.
The Inspiration4 flight is not only a historic mission in its effort to raise millions to battle childhood cancer, but also in its broader significance for the private and commercial space industries. According to SpaceX, the flight is set to take place in the fourth quarter of 2021 and will take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—the embarkation point for the Apollo and Space Shuttle missions. Importantly, the flight will not visit the International Space Station, marking a shift away from institutionalized space corporations. Instead, the trip will consist of a two to four-day journey across low earth orbit, ending in a splashdown landing in the Atlantic Ocean. This new and independent route marks the beginning of a new era of purely commercial and touristic flights to space, made possible by the fast-paced progress and self-reliance of the private space industry.
Even though taking an all-civilian crew to space does not come cheap, Isaacman believes that “this is the first step towards a world where everybody can go venture among the stars.” Currently, NASA pays tens of millions to SpaceX for each astronaut on board a Dragon capsule. Although Isaacman did not disclose the amount he paid to SpaceX for taking the Inspiration4 crew to space, he anticipated the donations to St. Jude Children’s Hospital to vastly exceed the cost of the mission.
Thus, in a world where technological advancements continue at such a rapid pace, the Inspiration4 mission remains the latest example of the fading barriers to entry for civilians to space. Even if the price of such a mission remains exorbitantly high for most private individuals, the declining costs of space exploration and the popularization of commercial and touristic missions to space give us hope that civilians will soon be able to venture to the stars.
Carlos Gonzalez Ortiz is a first-year student in Georgetown's School of Foreign Service studying Business and Global Affairs. He is interested in the intersection of business and space exploration, particularly in the growing importance of the commercial space industry.