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Second crew member for all-civilian mission to space announced

22 February 2021
Dan Ackermann

St. Jude physician assistant and childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux has been selected as the second crew member for an all-civilian mission to space expected to launch later this year.

Why it matters: The mission is a marker of a new age of commercial spaceflight, one in which private citizens and companies are able to go to space without government backing.

Driving the news: The mission — called Inspiration4 — is the brainchild of businessman Jared Isaacman, who has chartered a SpaceX Crew Dragon for the flight. Isaacman, Arceneaux and two other yet-to-be-chosen crew members will be in orbit for multiple days.

  • Inspiration4 is set up, in part, as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which treated Arceneaux when she was diagnosed with bone cancer at 10 years old.
  • "I really never thought I'd be going to space," Arceneaux told Axios. "And then after this was presented to me, I said, 'It's like a dream I didn't even know I had.' But like, this dream had come true."
  • The other two crew members for the mission will be selected at the end of February. One will be the winner of a raffle raising money for St. Jude and the other will be an entrepreneur selected by a panel of judges as part of a contest.

The big picture: Arceneaux says she hopes her trip to space will help inspire others, including her patients who she plans to speak to from orbit.

  • "I think it's going to change all of us, and I hope to just be able to share that in any way possible," Arceneaux said.

What's next: Arceneaux and Isaacman will continue to train for and plan their mission with SpaceX as they await the selection of their fellow crew members.

  • So far, the raffle has raised more than $9 million for St. Jude, along with Isaacman's donation of $100 million.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.