20. The Super Bowl is a strange place for a story about space to start, but that’s where a lot of people first heard of Inspiration4 via a commercial released a few days after the mission’s formal announcement.
19. Jared Isaacman — a former pilot and CEO of Shift4 Payments — was the first crew member announced for the first-ever all-civilian space crew.
17. The anonymous winner of one of those seats declined the once-in-a-lifetime trip. Instead, they donated it to data engineer and Air Force veteran Chris Sembroski.
16. Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, science communicator, and former astronaut candidate, was chosen for the mission in a Shark Tank-style entrepreneur competition.
15. Hayley Arceneaux joined the mission as a representative of St. Jude, where she works as a physician assistant. As a child, she was treated for cancer at the hospital.
14. Once the crew was announced, they began a seven-month training process, which included climbing Mt. Rainier and getting used to both zero-g flight and high g-forces to simulate takeoff.
13. As training continued, SpaceX prepared the rocket that would carry the Inspiration4 crew to space.
12. Inspiration4 was powered by a Falcon 9 rocket. For years, the SpaceX team has worked to make the Falcon 9 reusable for more flights. It crossed the 10-launch milestone this year.
11. The Falcon 9 carried a modified Crew Dragon capsule — dubbed Resilience — where the Inspiration4 astronauts would spend their trip.
10. Since Inspiration4 wasn’t heading to the International Space Station, its Crew Dragon’s docking port was replaced with a cupola window.
5. Just after launch, Arceneaux took Inspiration4’s custom zero-g indicator for a walk. Modeled after St. Jude’s therapy dogs, replicas of the plush toy were also sold to raise money for the hospital.
4. Inspiration4’s crew was treated to incredible views as they circled Earth roughly every 90 minutes.
2. After three days in space, Inspiration4 ended in a splashdown off the Florida coast.