Two days from now, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch its "first all-civilian (and privately financed) trip to orbit." A four-member non-professional crew of astronauts will be part of SpaceX’s three-day Inspiration4 mission.

The Inspiration4 astronauts will be launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on September 15 at 8 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

The crew, which has been training together for several months, will comprise a billionaire, a geoscientist, a bone cancer survivor and a data engineer, according to Space.com.

Here’s a look at the crew:

Jared Isaacman

The 34-year-old billionaire and founder of Shift4 payments service will command the Inspiration4 flight. Isaacman pursued his dream of flying in various ways. According to space.com, he bought all the seats on the SpaceX flight for an undisclosed price. He has over 6,000 hours of flight aircraft experience, having circumnavigated the world and flown in multiple air shows. He took over Draken International, a jet pilot training company.

Sian Proctor

The 51-year-old geoscience professor will be the first person from Guam to fly into space. She was selected as part of a competition organised by Isaacman. Proctor won that competition by raising awareness about women of colour in the space industry. She has also received training in flying fighter aircraft similar to MiG-29 and is a pilot of a Cessna 172 aircraft.

Hayley Arceneaux

The 29-year-old is a physician at St Jude Children’s research hospital. Isaacman has donated $100 million to the hospital, for which he hopes to raise another $100 million through his space mission. She comes from a family of aerospace engineers. Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor, and is fitted with a prosthetic. She will be the crew's medical officer during the flight.

Chris Sembroski

The 41-year-old data engineer and former US space camp counsellor has served in the US Air Force and had been posted in Iraq. He now works at Lockheed Martin. He got his seat on the space flight after the winner of a competition to raise funds for St Jude Children’s research hospital passed on his ticket to Sembroski.

Also read: Can marketers conquer Space?

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Sept 13, 2021 6:17 PM IST