As a result of the bone cancer she underwent, Hayley Arceneaux has steel rods in her left leg.
Washington, United States:
By the end of the year, Hayley Arceneaux is the youngest American in space and one of the first tourists to enter orbit without professional astronauts.
It’s a feat made even more amazing by her battle to overcome childhood cancer that robbed the 29-year-old of her dream of becoming an astronaut herself.
As a result of the bone cancer she took over, Arceneaux has steel rods in her left leg – which until recently were enough for her hopes to enter space.
Enter Jared Isaacman, a young American billionaire with a keen interest in space exploration who recorded a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at his own expense and decided to bring three with him, including Arceneaux.
Arceneaux said she hopes to be inspired by “this precedent he is about to set and what he is going to show these other children going through cancer treatment.”
Arceneaux was the first person selected for this unprecedented mission, called Inspiration4 and was ready to retire at the end of 2021.
The young woman was treated as a child at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which specializes in childhood diseases, including cancer.
Isaacman hopes to raise $ 200 million for the hospital on his space mission.
“I got a phone call mostly out of the blue in early January, and it was from St Jude … They basically said, ‘Do you want to go into space? ‘”Arceneaux told AFP.
“Immediately I said, ‘Yes, yes, absolutely! ‘”Said Arceneaux, who now works in the same hospital that cared for her, as a medical assistant.
As a child, she visited NASA’s space station in Houston, Texas. “Of course, I wanted to be an astronaut,” she said. “But then a few months later I was diagnosed with cancer, and it changed my world dramatically.”
“So far, astronauts have to be really physically perfect, which is not the region I fall into because of surgeries I got on my feet. And that’s one thing that I’m excited about this mission, it opens up space travel for anyone, “said Arceneaux.
“Big dream”
“It is a great honor to be the youngest American to go into space but honestly, what I am thrilled to be is the first pediatric cancer survivor to go to space. space, “she said.
“I just want to encourage my patients to dream big and not limit themselves. And I really hope to show them while I’m in space that anything is possible.”
One of the remaining two sets of the mission will be drawn from those who enter a lottery and are encouraged to donate to St. Jude.
The other will be chosen by a panel of judges from entrepreneurs who use an e-commerce tool from the Isaacman company, Shift4 Payments.
They will be announced later this month and will begin their training with Isaacman and Arceneaux. “First, we’re going to do the centrifuge training, getting our body ready for the G forces we’re going to feel,” she explained.
In the meantime, “Arceneaux has had so many questions, from what I’m going to wear in space, what do I eat in space, can I do makeup in space?”
“Silly little questions, but also how does this work, how does the rocket go up, how are we going to orbit the Earth?” she said.
SpaceX has said that during the multi-day mission, the astronauts orbit the Earth every 90 minutes.
The mission will take off in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, the only successful model with four astronauts into orbit and to the International Space Station in mid-November 2020.
After the mission, the spacecraft refreshes the atmosphere for water coming off the coast of Florida.
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is automatically extracted from syndicated feedings.)