South Mountain Community College professor chosen to be apart of Inspiration4 space mission
South Mountain Community College professor Dr. Sian Proctor will be a member of the four-person crew for the Inspiration4 space mission that is set to launch on Sept. 15.
Inspiration4 will be the first ever all-civilian mission to enter space. The mission will take the crew into orbit around the Earth for 3 to 4 days with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which is currently docked at the International Space Station.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is funding the project and will also be a crew member. The mission will also raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Isaacman donated more than $100 million to the hospital and plans to raise more through donations. The mission has raised just shy of $13 million so far.
One spot on the crew, designated for a healthcare worker from the hospital, went to Hayley Arceneaux. Another spot was won through a contest on the Inspiration4 website where entrants were encouraged to raise money for St. Jude. Christopher Sembroski was chosen out of over 70,000 contestants.
One of Isaacman’s companies, Shift4Shop, ran a contest of their own and filtered through hundreds of entries before choosing Proctor to be the final member of the crew.
The three seats given to the public have their own unique names. Arceneaux’s seat is named Hope, Sembroski’s is named Generosity, and Proctor is filling the seat named Prosperity.
Proctor’s website hosts her Space2Inspire studio. She posts art and resources to inspire others through her own inspirations and runs a Patreon. The works she posted to her Patreon secured her spot for the Inspiration4 mission.
Proctor has spent time training as an analog astronaut. This training takes place in environments that simulate conditions on Mars and on the Moon.
“I lived in my first Mars mission in 2013 when I lived in the HI-SEAS habitat, its about 900 square feet, and it was located on Hawaii,” said Proctor.
“My motto is ‘2Inspire,’” said Proctor. “My father worked for NASA, so my fascination with space and space travel started from a very young age.”
Proctor has been chasing her dream of entering space long before the Inspiration4 mission came about. She was a finalist for NASA’s astronaut class of 2009 along with two other attempts at joining NASA’s astronaut program. She is also a trained pilot, advocate for space exploration and entrepreneur.
The mission is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
