Cancer survivor’s trip to space to be mission first
Hospital worker part of all-civilian Inspiration4
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Hayley Arceneaux is going to space to show what life after pediatric cancer can be: without limits.
Arceneaux, 29, a cancer survivor working at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will be one of four people on the first all-civilian mission to space, scheduled to launch toward the end of the year.
A central goal of the mission, named Inspiration4, is to raise funds and awareness for St. Jude.
“I think for my patients to see someone just like them and for other survivors to see somebody who’s been through cancer going to space, I think it’s going to mean so much for them,” Arceneaux said Tuesday.
Arceneaux will become the youngest American in space – beating NASA record-holder Sally Ride by more than two years – when she blasts off this fall with entrepreneur and mission commander Jared Isaacman and two yetto-be-chosen contest winners.
Inspiration4 has a St. Jude donation goal of $100 million, in addition to the $100 million donated by Isaacman. The hospital treats children with lifethreatening diseases at no cost to their families and researches cures.
Arceneaux, who grew up in St. Francisville, Louisiana, was acquainted with St. Jude well before she began working there.
St. Jude treated her for bone cancer when she was 10 years old. Arceneaux underwent chemotherapy for a year and had most of the femur bone affected by the cancer replaced with a prosthetic device.
Arceneaux’s time being treated at St. Jude was a formative experience for her. She remembers playing pranks on staff members and performing in dance shows with her friends. At the end of it, Arceneaux said, she didn’t want to leave.
“All I ever wanted to do was work at St Jude,” she said. “Since I was 10, I said, ‘I’m going to come back and work here.’”
Arceneaux returned to St. Jude as a physician assistant in April. She often helps new patients and their families process difficult news. Her experience as a patient provides added reassurance.
“Working with the kids, it means so much because these kids are so brave,” she said. “They’re going through a big, life-changing thing. … I do share with them I was a former patient, especially with new kids. I love getting to share that with them.”
St. Jude offered her the seat on Inspiration4 in early January. Arceneaux immediately said yes. “I do consider myself an adventurer, and so while I never thought I would be going to space, it fits, and this is a once-in-alifetime opportunity,” she said.
Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments and an experienced jet pilot, leads the mission.
“I have a hard time with us making progress in the world and beyond our world, like what we aim to do with Inspiration4, without trying to take care of some of these horrific and significant problems we have here on Earth,” he said. “That’s why St. Jude had to play such an important part of this mission.”
The other two crew members have not been named. They will represent the St. Jude mission pillars of generosity, occupied by the winner of a sweepstakes open through February, and prosperity, occupied by an entrepreneur using the Shift4Shop platform. Arceneaux and Isaacman represent the mission pillars of hope and leadership, respectively.
Rick Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC, St. Jude’s fundraising and awareness organization, said Arceneaux embodied the mission’s “hope” seat: a former St. Jude patient serving its mission professionally, who represents a younger generation.
“She’s a deep inspiration,” Shadyac said. “I’ve seen her speak and just be there for our patients and for our patients’ families, and she is so inspiring. You put all this together – and this mission is Inspiration4, right? – and she fit all the criteria.”
Isaacman said he “can’t think of a better crew member” than Arceneaux.
SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by CEO Elon Musk, will provide training for the mission’s crew. The training, starting in March, will essentially be identical to a NASA curriculum, ranging from the academics of orbital mechanics to emergency procedures, Isaacman said.
The historic mission will launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the Apollo and space shuttle missions embarked, with help from the reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The crew will travel weightless across a low Earth orbit at more than 17,000 mph.
Arceneaux and company will be inside the Dragon spacecraft during their journey. Tight quarters bring added importance to getting crew members comfortable with each other, Isaacman said.
Isaacman said they “intend to stay busy up there.” He wants to conduct experiments and bring a special payload into orbit, and St. Jude is in the front of the line as far as influencing what that will entail.
“St. Jude has the first priority on payload and experiments,” he said. “They’ll give us an idea on what they’d like to have up there, and we’ll alter the spacecraft configuration to accommodate it.”
The spacecraft and crew members will reenter the atmosphere days after launch off the coast of Florida.
St. Jude raised more than $9.3 million in donations through the sweepstakes. The donations will go toward the general needs of St. Jude, which costs more than $1 billion a year to operate, Shadyac said.
Shadyac said he hopes Arceneaux’s journey will inspire cancer patients.
Besides being part of the first all-civilian crew to space, Arceneaux will make history by being the first person with a prosthesis to go into orbit, according to St. Jude.
In addition to St. Jude patients, Arceneaux said, she is doing the mission for the friends she has lost to cancer.
“We have not gotten to 100% (pediatric cancer) survival rate yet, and I think we will, and I think St. Jude is going to be the one to do it,” she said. “Until then, we have to fund research. This mission is really going to get us there.”