SpaceX sending first all-civilian crew into orbit

Tesla founder Elon Musk’s space company is set to send the first all-civilian crew into space on Wednesday, ABC News reported.

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 will be the first space tourism flight without an astronaut guiding passengers through the initial launch and landing. 

The all-civilian crew for the mission consists of Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor. 

Isaacman, a billionaire who founded a payment processing company called Shift4, bought all four seats on the flight for nearly $200 million, according to ABC News. 

Proctor and Sembroksi won their seats through a lottery that required a donation to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

Arceneaux, a bone cancer survivor, is a St. Jude ambassador on the flight. She’s a former patient and now a physician assistant for the hospital, ABC News reported. 

The civilian crew prepared for the upcoming flight by running through partial and full simulations during astronaut training. 

Our #Inspiration4 crew has completed astronaut training at @SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, CA and is en route to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final preparations and launch! pic.twitter.com/gyuScbybgc

— Inspiration4 (@inspiration4x) September 9, 2021

The Inspiration4 flight plans to reach an altitude of about 360 miles during its three-day mission, which will be higher than any other human spaceflight mission since the Gemini 10 and 11 missions in 1966, according to The Washington Post.

SpaceX’s launch follows other successful space launches from billionaires Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic in July. 

Inspiration4 is set to launch from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, ABC News noted.