Elon Musk’s SpaceX Announces a Spaceflight Intended to Raise Money for St. Jude Hospital

martyb writes:

Elon Musk's SpaceX announces a spaceflight intended to raise money for St. Jude hospital:

SpaceX announced Monday that it would fly a crew of private citizens into orbit around the Earth, potentially by the end of the year, in a multiday mission designed to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

[...] [SpaceX] plans to fly a crew of four - all private citizens - to the International Space Station early next year.

The flight announced Monday would mark another significant milestone in the privatization of spaceflight, as private companies erode governments' long-held monopoly on human spaceflight. It is being funded by Jared Isaacman, the 37-year-old founder and chief executive of Shift4 Payments, a payments technology company. Isaacman, an accomplished pilot who flies commercial and military aircraft, would command the mission and is donating two of the seats to St. Jude.

One is going to a yet-to-be named health-care worker at the hospital. The other seat would be raffled off, in an attempt to raise at least $200 million for St. Jude.

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