Children’s Research Hospital St. Jude announced Monday that former bone cancer patient and survivor Hayley Arceneaux will join billionaire Jared Isaacman on the first civilian SpaceX flight later this year. At the age of 29, Arceneaux will become the youngest American, as well as the first person with a prosthetic part of his body to go into space.
“My battle with cancer has really prepared me for space travel,” Arceneaux, who now works as an assistant physician at St. Louis, told the Associated Press. Jude. “It made me hard and I also think it really taught me to expect the unexpected and go for a walk.”
Growing up in Louisiana, Arceneaux first dreamed of becoming an astronaut when her family traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston when she was 9 years old. Shortly after that visit, she received life-changing news when she was diagnosed with bone cancer at age 10. As part of her treatment, Arceneaux had to undergo surgery at St. Jude to replace his knee and get a metal rod in the left bone of his thigh. .
“I always told myself when I went through a treatment that God has a plan,” she said in a recent interview with St. Jude. Now, almost 20 years later, Arceneaux’s future space trip seems like a complete moment in a circle. “I am overwhelmingly grateful for His faithfulness and my wild journey.”
The 29-year-old was chosen as one of four people to join Isaacman, a pilot and founder of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, in his charity mission called Inspiration4. Isaacman announced the mission earlier this year, with a commitment to raise $ 200 million for St. Jude to help fight childhood cancer. The 38-year-old entrepreneur, who has a net worth of $ 2.3 billion, according to Forbes, has already pledged $ 100 million of his own money for the case.
In a tweet on Monday, Isaacman said he was pleased that Arceneaux would join her in space and knew she would be an “inspiration to people around the world.”
In addition to Arceneaux, the other places in Isaacman’s mission will be filled by a winner selected from a lottery contest that raises money for St. Jude and an entrepreneur who wins a contest sponsored by Shift4 Payments. Isaacman will announce who these individual winners are in March.
Currently, the takeoff for the mission is targeted for October at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the trip lasting two to four days, reports AP. Isaacman, who bought the launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket for an undisclosed amount, says he believes the mission “is the first step toward a world where everyone can go and adventure among the stars.”
“I know that the money raised and the awareness of this mission will change lives …” said Arceneaux, who will serve as the crew’s medical officer. “And it means for me, both as a former patient and now as an employee, to know that we will be able to help more children because of this mission.”
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