SpaceX / Inspiration4 mission - all civilian

[schlaugh]

The SpaceX thread is up to 148 posts, and counting, so I thought a separate thread for the Inspiration4 mission might make sense. If not, please merge.

The mission is being paid for by billionaire Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. And of course he is on the mission too.

The expedition is part of a charity initiative to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Issacman is apparently donating $100 million to St. Jude and donating the other three seats in the Dragon to crewmembers who will be specially selected for the humanitarian flight. The only passenger announced so far is Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old Physicians' Assistant at St. Jude Hospital. Arceneaux spent part of her childhood fighting bone cancer at St. Jude. The other two crew members are supposed to be announced next Sunday afternoon.

[docmordrid]

Inspiration4 passenger assignments

Spacecraft Commander: Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments and an experienced pilot

Chief Medical Officer: Hayley Arceneaux, "St. Jude ambassador"

Spaceflight Participant 1: TBA

Spaceflight Participant 2: TBA

[KaiYeves]

Inspiration4 passenger assignments

Spacecraft Commander: Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments and an experienced pilot

Well, we would certainly hope, given the circumstances...

[Swift]

Interview with Hayley Arceneaux. Seems like a neat lady.

LINK

[Van Rijn]

It is just so great seeing commercial orbital flights about to begin. I wonder who will start offering real space flight lotteries? I never put money into lotteries, but I would for a space flight lottery.

[Van Rijn]

Well, we would certainly hope, given the circumstances...

Actually, I’m curious how much aircraft pilot experience carries over and if it really is that important? Most of the flight would be handled by computer (if all goes well, pretty much all of it) and even for manual control, it isn’t much like flying a plane. Maybe a pilot would have more familiarity with the type of training they would receive versus some others and might have some experience with flight emergencies which could be important, but I expect quite a lot of non-pilots could do as well, as long as they were motivated and could handle it physically. At least for the space shuttle, it was like a plane (or glider) for part of the flight so it made more sense there.

[Jens]

Actually, I’m curious how much aircraft pilot experience carries over and if it really is that important? Most of the flight would be handled by computer (if all goes well, pretty much all of it) and even for manual control, it isn’t much like flying a plane. Maybe a pilot would have more familiarity with the type of training they would receive versus some others and might have some experience with flight emergencies which could be important, but I expect quite a lot of non-pilots could do as well, as long as they were motivated and could handle it physically. At least for the space shuttle, it was like a plane (or glider) for part of the flight so it made more sense there.

I'm unsure too, but I think one of the skills that might be important is quickly going through checklists to debug problems, so knowing where to look for the appropriate manual and then carefully and calmly going through the checklist to see what you have to do.

[Nicolas]

And knowledge of the airflight principle "no problem is so bad that you cannot make it worse" also translates well to spaceflight.

[Roger E. Moore]

You only have a few days left to try and win a chance to go to space on the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, which is scheduled to launch to Earth orbit in late 2021. Until the end of this week, go to the Inspiration4 website to win one of its two final seats, along with billionaire and commander Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee who survived bone cancer and was selected to join the mission as the crew's chief medical officer.

https://www.space.com/spacex-inspira...tests-end-soon

[schlaugh]

And knowledge of the airflight principle "no problem is so bad that you cannot make it worse" also translates well to spaceflight.

Modern aircraft certainly still require basic piloting skills but modern aircraft (with modern avionics) are almost as much about systems management as they are keeping everything straight and level. Pilots have to juggle multiple systems to make the aircraft do what they want.

Isaacman is qualified to fly in multiple types of aircraft, including fighter jets, so he has some of the same skills as the early astronauts and the same systems management experience. That said, it's not clear how much manual control he'll have over Dragon. But if I was him I'd lobby hard for at least some opportunity to direct the capsule when on orbit.