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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced on Monday that former bone cancer patient and survivor Hayley Arceneaux will join billionaire Jared Isaacman on the first fully civilian SpaceX flight later this year. At 29, Arceneaux will become the youngest American, as well as the first person with a prosthetic body part, to go into space.
“My battle with cancer really prepared me for space travel,” Arceneaux, who now works as a medical assistant at St. Jude, told The Associated Press. “It made me difficult, and I also think it really taught me to expect the unexpected and move on.”
Growing up in Louisiana, Arceneaux first dreamed of becoming an astronaut when his family visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston at the age of 9. Shortly after this visit, she received heartbreaking news when she was diagnosed with bone cancer at age 10. As part of his treatment, Arceneaux had to undergo surgery at St. Jude’s to replace his knee and obtain a metal rod in the left thigh bone. .
“I told myself time and time again while undergoing treatment that God has a plan,” she said in a recent interview with St. Jude. Today, almost 20 years later, Arceneaux’s next space trip seems like a loop moment. “I am extremely grateful for his loyalty and my wild journey.”
The 29-year-old was chosen as one of four people to join Isaacman, pilot and founder of payment processing company Shift4 Payments, on his charitable mission titled Inspiration4. Isaacman announced the mission earlier this year, with a pledge to raise $ 200 million for St. Jude to fight childhood cancer. The 38-year-old entrepreneur, who has a net worth of $ 2.3 billion, according to Forbes, has already committed $ 100 million of his own money to the cause.
In a tweet Monday, Isaacman said he was excited for Arceneaux to join him in space and he knows she will be an “inspiration to people around the world.”
In addition to Arceneaux, the other seats in the Isaacman mission will be occupied by a winner selected from a raffle contest that raises funds for St. Jude and by an entrepreneur who wins a contest sponsored by Shift4 Payments. Isaacman is expected to announce who these individual winners are in March.
Currently, the mission is scheduled to take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in October, with a travel time of two to four days, AP reports. Isaacman, who bought the rocket launch at SpaceX from Elon Musk for an undisclosed amount, says he believes this mission “is the first step towards a world where anyone can go and venture among the stars. “.
“I know the money raised and the awareness raised by this mission will change lives …” said Arceneaux, who will serve as the crew’s chief medical officer. “And it means a lot to me, both as a former patient and now an employee, to know that we are going to be able to help so many more children through this mission.
Check: Meet the billionaire commanding SpaceX’s all-civilian mission – he dropped out of high school to start his business
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