SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission will be a Netflix documentary series. It will be the company’s first all-civilian spaceflight that was booked by Shift4Payments founder Jared Isaacman. He paid for a three day space tour orbiting Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Isaacman wanted to make the historic voyage something inspiring so he decided to turn the Inspiration4 mission into a massive fundraising effort for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He invited a pediatric cancer survivor, Hayley Arceneaux, to launch to space with him. She currently works as a physician assistant at St. Jude’s oncology unit and looks forward to send a video message the children at the hospital from space.
The other crewmembers are: Christopher Sembroski who is a former U.S. Air Force member and now works as an engineer with Lockheed Martin, and Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscience professor who was previously a NASA astronaut candidate. They won a seat aboard the Inspiration4 mission for participating in fundraising St. Jude contests sponsored by Shift4Payments. Isaacman donated $100 million to the hospital and looks forward to raising more funds.
The first all-civilian team of astronauts is headed to orbit. Here’s what to know about the Inspiration4 mission https://t.co/FHUoGQ2Grr pic.twitter.com/6c1OENVnzb
— TIME (@TIME) August 5, 2021
Their adventure will be streamed on Netflix for the world to see. “Never imagined a Netflix documentary when we kicked off Inspiration4 just 8 months ago,” Isaacman said, “Amazing how fast things come together. Proceeds from this directly benefit St.Jude & our $200 million fundraising objective.” The Netflix documentary series is called – Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space – it will be streamed in near real-time. SpaceX targets to launch the crew no earlier than September 15.
The docuseries is produced by TIME Studios and directed by ‘The Last Dance’ director Jason Hehir. The documentary will follow the civilian crew's journey to space. They will liftoff from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 aboard a modified Crew Dragon. The spacecraft will feature a large dome window, so the crew can enjoy 360-views of Earth from orbit. The series will premiere in five episodes leading up to launch day, beginning with the first two episodes on September 6, followed by the next pair of episodes on September 13. The finale episode will be streamed on Netflix after their launch by the end of September.
Never imagined a Netflix documentary when we kicked off @inspiration4x just 8 months ago. Amazing how fast things come together. Proceeds from this directly benefit @StJude & our $200 million fundraising objective. https://t.co/7Wslcd6m8a
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 3, 2021
Featured Image Source: Inspiration4 & Netflix
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
