Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP) – After beating bone cancer, Haley should have a piece of surprise cake in orbit on the first private flight of the Arsenox SpaceX.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced Monday that the 29-year-old physician assistant – a former patient hired last spring – will start later this year alongside a billionaire who used his purchased spaceflight as a charitable fundraiser.
Arsenax will become the youngest American in space – beating NASA record holder Sally Ride for more than two years – while she will blast this fall with entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and two rival winners chosen so far.
It will also be the first to launch with a prosthesis. When she was 10, she underwent surgery at St. Jude to have a knee replacement and titanium rods in her left thigh bone. He is still lame and occasionally has leg pain, but has been cleared for a flight by SpaceX. He will serve as the medical officer of the crew.
“My battle with cancer really prepared me for space travel,” Arsenox said in an interview with the Associated Press. “It made me difficult, and then I think it really taught me to anticipate the unexpected and move on to the ride.”
She wants to show her young patients and other cancer survivors that “the sky is no longer the limit.”
“It would make a lot of sense for these kids to see a survivor in space,” he said.
Isaacman announced his space mission on February 1, promising to raise 200 200 million for St. Jude, half his own contribution. As the self-appointed commander of the flight, he offered St. Jude one of four SpaceX Dragon Capsule seats.
Rick Shedyak, president of the St. Jude’s Fundraising Association, said St. Jude had been a patient at one of the hospital and fundraising staff and selected Arsenax from among the fundraising staff who could represent the next pay representative.
Arsenics was at home in Memphis, Tennessee, when she received a “Blue Out” call in January asking if she could launch St. Jude into space.
His immediate response was: “Yes! Yes! Please! But first she wanted to run her mother in St. Francisville, Louisiana. (Her father died of kidney cancer in 2018.) Next she reached out to her brother and sister-in-law, both aerospace engineers in Huntville, Alabama, who “assured me how safe travel is.”
A lifelong space fan who embraces adventure, Arsenox insists that those who know him will not be surprised. She has sunk on a bungee swing in New Zealand and has come to Morocco. And he prefers the roller coaster.
Isaacman, who flies fighter jets for a hobby, considers it perfectly suitable.
Isaacman, 38, said last week that it shouldn’t be about encouraging all people to become astronauts one day, which is definitely nice. “It’s also about the inspiring message of what we can achieve here on earth.”
It has two more crew members to choose from, and plans to announce them in March.
One sweepstakes will be the winner; Anyone who donates to St. Jude this month is eligible. So far, it has generated more than 9 million in revenue, according to Shady Dick. The second meeting will go to the business owner who will use the credit card-processing company Shift 4 Payments, Isaacmans Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The lift-off fun is targeted at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center around October, with the capsule two to four days around Earth. It does not disclose the price.
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The Associated Press The Department of Health and Science is supported by the Department of Science Education at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is fully responsible for all content.
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