Inspiration4 was the first crewed orbital mission to take no astronauts, only tourists. The SpaceX flight was chartered by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire defense contractor and pilot. Aside from being a feather in the cap of the four passengers, the flight aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience was meant to raise awareness, support, and funds for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Isaacman donated $100 million, fully half of the mission’s $200 million fundraising goal, and the other three seats on his mission. St. Jude got to fill one seat. It sent Hayley Arceneaux, a physician’s assistant and former St. Jude patient–the first cancer survivor to go to space.
By the time the small crew of flight Inspiration4 landed just off the Florida coast, the fundraiser had reached $160 million. $50 million of that came in the form of a pledge from Elon Musk, founder and owner of SpaceX.
“This brings tears to my eyes,” wrote Arceneaux, who served as the medical officer of Inspiration4, of Musk’s donation. “Thank you Elon Musk for this generous donation toward our $200 million dollar fundraising goal for St. Jude!!!”
Isaacman, who founded his first company at age 16, holds several world records, including one for the fastest round-the-world flight. Each record-breaking performance has been a fundraiser for some charitable cause, most of which he primed heavily out of his own pocket.
“Inspiration4 is the realization of a lifelong dream and a step toward a future in which anyone can venture out and explore the stars,” Isaacman said in a statement. He recalls being in kindergarten at Wilson Elementary School in New Jersey looking at high-resolution picture books of the space shuttle. “I did tell my kindergarten teacher I would go to space someday, and she said she’d be watching.”
Hopefully, she was.
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