Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, September 16
Childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arsinaux, 29, became the youngest American to travel to space after SpaceX launched the world’s first all-civilian manned space flight into Earth orbit.
She is the first person in space to have a prosthesis, a titanium rod, in her left leg.
Another billionaire to enter the space is entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the American founder and CEO of e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments. The 38-year-old tech mogul gave an unspecified but possibly exorbitant amount of money to Isaacman and three specially selected travel companions for fellow billionaire and SpaceX owner Elon Musk to fly into orbit in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
The Pennsylvania entrepreneur – Jared Isaacman – would not say how much he paid.
She and her fellow passengers will spend three days in Earth orbit at an unusually high altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers) above the International Space Station before separating from the Florida coast later this week. .
Isaacman and others — St. Jude physician assistant Hayley Arsinaux and sweepstakes winner Chris Sambrowski, a data engineer, and Sean Proctor, a community college teacher — said on the eve of the launch that they had some last-minute setbacks.
This will be the first time in 60 years of human spaceflight that no professional astronaut is on board an orbiting rocket.
While NASA has no role in the flight, its managers and astronauts are vested for the flight, called Inspire 4.
“To me, the more people involved, whether private or government, the better, who is nearing the end of his six-month space station stay,” said NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough.
With inputs from AP