- Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arsinaux, Sean Procter and Chris Sambrowski launched into space Thursday morning on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule
- Four citizens spent three days orbiting the planet 360 miles above Earth
- Few details of his time in orbit have been released because it was a private mission.
- Tom Cruise called him on Thursday shortly after arriving in orbit to discuss his time in space and prepare for his own spacecraft, expected in 2022.
Tom Cruise called to chat with SpaceX’s first all-civilian crew as they orbited 360 miles above Earth during a three-day flight.
Four crew members, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, who funded the mission, were traveling in a specially designed SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule during the mission.
Cruise called during his first day on Thursday, September 16, and while no specifics have been revealed, the Inspiration 4 Twitter account referenced his Top Gun call sign saying, ‘Maverick, you’ll ever be our wingman. can.
The actor is in talks with NASA and SpaceX to make his own spaceflight next year, going to the International Space Station to film all or part of an unknown film.
The flight was part of a bid to raise $200 million (£146 million) for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with $100 million donated by Isaacman and the rest from other charities, auctions and a media deal with Netflix Was.
Elon Musk, who saw the crew on Thursday, announced that he would personally donate $50 million (£36 million) to fundraising efforts.
Inspiration 4 crew in space. They are, from left, Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arsinaux, Chris Sambrowski and Sean Proctor.
Tom Cruise called the crew during their first day in orbit, and while nothing was known of the conversation, the Twitter account referred to their Top Gun callsign ‘Maverick’.
Inspiration 4 launched on Sept. 16 at SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean just before midnight on Sept. 18.
Thursday’s conversation with Tom Cruise, like the full three-day flight, was private and so no details were released, with the discussion expected to be part of the next episode of the Netflix series, which will debut all civilian spacecraft. But will be
The four nationals on the Inspire 4 each had a call sign: Jared Isaacman (Rook), Hayley Arsenaux (Nova), Dr. Sean Proctor (Leo), and Chris Sambrowski (Hanks).
He wrote, ‘The Inspiration 4 crew’s first day in space was incredible. ‘They have completed more than 15 orbits around planet Earth since liftoff and made full use of the Dragon Cupola.’ Ms Acreneaux is pictured in the vaulted window, known as the cupola
Meet the Inspiration4 Crew
Jared Isaacman, 38
Jared Isaacman, 38
Issakman grew up in New Jersey and started working in computer technical support and repair when he was just 14 years old.
Two years later, he was offered a full-time position and dropped out of high school to take the job—he later earned a GED.
In 2005, Issacman founded a retail payment processing company called United Bank Cards, later renamed HarborTouch, a point-of-sale payments company based in Pennsylvania.
He was the founding CEO and retained that role, having been with the company for ‘more than a decade’ profitable in 2015.
By 2020, the company was renamed Shift4 Payments, Isaacman became CEO, and the company was processing $200 billion in payments annually.
Issacman piloted the craft and served as spacecraft commander.
Hayley Arsinaux, 29
Hayley Arsinaux, 29
Arsinox, who hails from Tennessee, was the first winner of a seat on the craft, which would become the youngest American in space and the first person to travel with a prosthesis.
At age 10, Arsinox was treated for bone cancer and underwent surgery in St. Jude to replace her knee and receive a titanium rod in her left thigh bone.
She wants to show her young patients and other cancer survivors that ‘the sky is no longer the limit.’
Sean Proctor, 51
Sean Proctor, 51
Proctor was shown as the winner last March.
He is an entrepreneur, educator, trained pilot and an active voice in the space exploration community.
He was selected as the top entrant to an independently scheduled online business competition that attracted nearly 200 entries and was run by the eCommerce platform Shift4Shop.
And an independent panel of judges chose their space art website, dubbed Space2inspire.
Proctor, who studied geology, applied three times to NASA’s astronaut corps, came to a close in 2009, and participated in the simulated Mars mission in Hawaii.
Chris Sambrowski, 41
Chris Sambrowski, 41
The last seat was given to Sambrowski, who donated and entered a lottery but was not chosen in a random drawing earlier this month – his friend was.
His friend refused to fly for personal reasons and offered the opportunity to Sambrowski, who worked as a Space Camp counselor in college and volunteered for space advocacy groups.
In March, he said, ‘Just finding out I’m going to space was an incredible, strange, surreal phenomenon.
Sambrowski served as mission specialist and will help manage payloads, science experiments, communications for mission control, and more.
While it is unclear whether the crew used their Top Gun callsign, Maverick, the Twitter account referenced it when sharing the news of the phone call.
Cruise starred as Navy pilot Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in the 1986 film Top Gun. A sequel comes out next year.
SpaceX moved all civilian crew to a 363-mile (585-kilometer) orbit after Wednesday night’s launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, 100 miles above the ISS.
The group, led by Jared Isaacman (pictured), who is also funding the trip, spent three days orbiting the planet, before returning to Earth on Saturday.
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