Did you know that Elon Musk wanted to raise $200 Mn from the Inspiration4 launch by SpaceX?
Not for any entertainment purposes, but to raise funds to benefit childhood cancer research by the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It is a pediatric cancer research hospital that does not charge the families of children for their treatment. The goal was set at $200 Mn.
Inspiration4 was the first space flight to carry 4 civilians into space.
1. Commander
Jared Isaacman, Founder and CEO of credit card processing business Shift4 Payments, acted as commander for the mission. Isaacman pledged $100 million out of his own pocket and he single handedly donated the remaining three seats of his four-person flight to sponsor St. Jude.
2. Crew member 1
The first crew member was Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a physician assistant at St. Jude in Memphis who, as a child, also received treatment for bone cancer from the same organization. She was chosen to join the crew by St. Jude, and according to the New York Times will become the first person with a prosthetic body part to go to space, as during her treatment she received metal rods to replace parts of bones in her left leg. She will also be one of the youngest people to go to space, and the youngest American to do so, edging out pioneering astronaut Sally Ride by just a few years. Arceneaux will serve as medical officer for the flight.
3. Crew member 2
Chris Sembroski, 41, is a data engineer and long-time space enthusiast who once worked as a counselor at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. His seat was up for grabs in a fundraiser sweepstakes meant to support St. Jude, but while Sembroski entered the competition, an unnamed friend actually won. The friend then offered the seat to Sembroski, recalling his avid interest in spaceflight and astronomy, Space.com previously reported. Sembroski will serve as mission specialist, and according to a press release will "help manage payload, science experiments, communications to mission control and more."
4. Crew member 3
Proctor, 51, a geology and planetary science professor and science communication specialist, was awarded her seat as winner of the Shift4Shop competition. The contest asked entrants to set up an e-commerce site using a platform owned by Isaacman’s company, Shift4 Payments. As part of the contest, Proctor, 51, also recorded a video sharing her "inspirational entrepreneurial story" and why her business "should be elevated to the stars." Proctor's "Space2Inspire" shop offered postcards and prints of her AfronautSpace art, which she uses to encourage conversations about women of color in the space industry.
The original plan was to raise funds by carrying various items such as guitar, music, jackets, among other items into space, bring them back into earth and auction it out.
Musk made the pledge late Saturday (Sept. 18) after the four private astronauts of the Inspiration4 mission returned safely to Earth with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the Florida coast. The mission was financed by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who bought the flight with SpaceX and served as its commander, to raise awareness and support for St. Jude. As of splashdown, the mission had raised about $160 million for the hospital.
Musk's donation brings the estimated total of the Inspiration4 fundraiser to about $210 million and that's before a planned auction of many items the crew took into space on the mission. That includes a Martin Guitar ukulele played by Sembroski,watches, pens, art and flight jackets, as well as dozens of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, for artwork and a new song by the Kings of Leon.
Read more about the Inspiration4 mission at the below sources.
1. https://www.space.com/elon-musk-inspiration4-st-jude-spacex-donation
2. https://www.space.com/inspiration4-spacex.html
3. https://www.space.com/inspiration4-crew-space-souvenirs
4. https://www.space.com/spacex-inspiration4-new-era-private-spaceflight
5. https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/philanthropy/jared-isaacman/