SpaceX to launch four American civilians on historic, three-day voyage around Earth

[Applause] [Music] we welcome you back to planet earth and thanks for flying spacex big round of applause in order for this one after a nearly six-month stay on the international space station a spacex dragon capsule carrying four astronauts splashed out early yesterday look at that off the northwest coast of florida now this was the first nighttime splashdown for a u.s crew in more than 52 years that's a big old wow this capsule will make history again this fall when it carries the first all-civilian space crew into orbit for the first inspiration for mission mark straussman introduces us to the four americans who will be on board there's the crew 255 feet above historic launch pad 39a we met the crew of inspiration four the next astronauts to climb atop a rocket at spacex's launch tower this is like totally sacred ground everyone who ever walked on the moon launched right from this facility jared isaacman the mission's commander walked us down the crew access arm their gateway to the stars there's your like jetway to the rockets isaac min is 38 at 16 he quit high school to form a payments technology company and became a billionaire his hobby owning and flying fighter jets so when the new commercial era of space opened you thought i'm a customer well i mean i thought there would be a chance ignition he's chartered a crew dragon spaceship for three days flying on autopilot it will orbit more than 300 miles above earth higher than the space station the nose cone will pop open for views that are out of this world isaac been paid spacex an undisclosed price for all four seats three will go to complete strangers when i found out that inspiration four was going to be the first all-civilian mission to space well then there's no chance that's going to be a bunch of fishing buddies going on a joyride that's something of significance of responsibility and we were going to make it really special each seat will represent a human virtue isaacman's will be leadership he donated two of the three remaining seats to saint jude children's research hospital in memphis specialists in pediatric cancers st jude called me one day they said they had something to talk to me about haley arsenau's 29 this physician's assistant at saint jude's would become the youngest american ever to fly in space they asked if i wanted to go and immediately i said yes and then you know checked with my mom she was on board and so i i knew just from that moment that i was absolutely something like a dream i didn't even know i had this is haley in 2002 as a patient at st jude's she was 10 being treated for osteosarcoma bone cancer she recovered after chemo and surgery with a titanium rod in her left thigh bone she now works at the same hospital that saved her life her seat in the capsule will represent hope so we're going to call the saint jude patients from space they're going to see that somebody who is in their shoes who also fought childhood cancer can go to space and i think it's really going to show them what they're capable of yeah that's pretty amazing cyan proctor aptly named teaches science at a community college in phoenix did you think your space dream was over oh absolutely the 51 year old was once a finalist for nasa's astronaut program but ultimately passed over proctor's ticket to space aboard inspiration 4 came by winning a contest for entrepreneurs her seat represents prosperity you went from space not being in the stars to suddenly it was what was that moment like i'll never forget it i'd make that analogy of either willy wonka and you open up the chocolate bar and there's the golden ticket or harry potter learning he's a wizard so jared was the sorting hat for you he was gryffindor no it's a dragon i get to ride a dragon into space this is where everybody got on their rocket to go chris sombrowski a 41 year old engineer from seattle won the fourth seat through an online raffle to raise money for saint jews he actually lost the raffle but a friend won and gave him the chance now that's generosity the virtue his seat represents and then i ran upstairs after the call and talked to my wife and said honey i i'm going to ride a rocket and her response was what and my daughter who was sitting there said that's awesome that's really cool dad this space flight will make history issacman also hopes it makes money as a fundraiser for saint jews his goal raised 200 million dollars for the hospital we have a responsibility to take care of some of these problems here on earth if we're going to go and explore among the stars and you've given 100 million dollars yourself i have now i know how lucky i've been in life the ball's bounced my way many times and some of these families have been dealt just a horrible hand in life so we got to do something about it that's why it has to be such a big initiative for cbs this morning mark strossman at the kennedy space center i love that honey mom yeah go into space on this space i heard isaac mendoza wow i love all the thought he put into every single aspect of this mission and they all match their stories too exactly the hope the prosperity the generosity leadership wow it's a special thing that little capsule on top of the giant rocket it's mostly just rocket fuel i'm literally getting chills in the middle of that would either one of you want to go i definitely don't would do it i admire them do it you would yeah oh for sure and i'm sure vlad duterte would as well he'll be here next yeah we'll ask him about it stay with

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 720,515

Keywords: video, cbs, news, spacex, launch, americans, civilians, historic, voyage, earth, inspiration4, mission, all civilian crew, orbit, jared issacman, billionaire, raise money, st jude, childrens hospital

Id: SpOp6RaP-Qs

Length: 5min 45sec (345 seconds)

Published: Mon May 03 2021