The Inspiration4 spent three days in space and became the first all civilian space mission. The flight had a goal of raising $200 million to fight childhood cancer and support St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Here’s how the flight surpassed that goal.
What Happened: The Inspiration4 launched on Wednesday using a SpaceX Falcon 9 and contained four civilians.
The astronauts were Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4Payments FOUR, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Chris Sembroski.
The space mission was three days, beating the short trips taken by civilians aboard the Virgin Galactic SPCE and Blue Origin flights featuring founders Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos respectively.
The 590km above Earth altitude reached put the Inspiration4 higher than the International Space Station and marked the highest mark reached by humans in years.
Arceneaux became the youngest American astronaut and the first to fly to space with a prosthetic leg.
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Raising Money: The flight had a goal of raising $200 million for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, a personal cause for Arceneaux, who was a cancer patient at St. Jude’s as a child.
Isaacman and Shift4Payments donated $100 million to St. Jude’s. Donations from Isaacman include winnings from a bet made from space with the help of BetMGM, a joint venture from Entain and MGM Resorts International MGM.
SpaceX and Tesla Inc TSLA founder Elon Musk announced a $50 million donation to help push St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital donations over $200 million.
Public donations have totaled $60.2 million and can be placed here.
If the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl, another $264,000 will be donated from Isaacman’s sports betting profits.
Disclosure: Author is long shares SPCE.
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