Hayley Arceneaux, the youngest crew member of Inspiration4, and youngest astronaut to go to space, spoke to WGN News about her upcoming mission this morning. Arceneaux is a cancer survivor, physician’s assistant, and current astronaut in training after being named to the Inspiration4 crew earlier this year.
The fundraising launch for St. Jude was organized by billionaire Jared Isaacman and will be the first all civilian space mission to space. After an online competition, Arceneaux and Isaacman will be joined by Dr. Sian Proctor and Christopher Sembroski.
Hayley Arceneaux appeared on WGN 9 news team this morning to speak about her astronaut training, mission specifics, and her confidence in SpaceX and crewmates for a successful mission. The primary goal of the three day mission is to raise awareness for St. Jude, but the crew will also be performing research during their time onboard Crew Dragon. Currently the crew of four is splitting their time between SpaceX headquarters and other training centers around the country.
When asked if she was scared, Arceneaux replied, “I am not nervous at all. I think I’ll have some butterflies on launch day, but as of now I have such faith in SpaceX. I know that we are going to be in great hands.” The crew will actually be traveling further into space than current crewed missions do, orbiting at 311 miles above Earth. NASA, ESA, JAXA, and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts launch to the International Space Station where they orbit the Earth 254 miles high.
