Jacqueline’s Space: The Duality of Space Travel

At 10 years old, Hayley Arceneaux began nearly a year of intensive chemotherapy treatment for bone cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

The now 29-year-old has fulfilled her dream of returning to work at St. Jude’s as a physician’s assistant.

She has also recently become an astronaut. 

Arceneaux shot into space on the Inspiration4 mission Sept. 16 alongside Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who commanded and funded the mission; Dr. Sian Proctor, the mission pilot, a geologist and community college professor; and Chris Sembroski, a veteran and data engineer. The three-day orbit that hit an altitude of 367 miles made Arceneaux the youngest American to ever fly in space, the first astronaut with a prosthetic and part of a historic team made of the first all-civilian crew.

But this flight had an even bigger purpose. Isaacman set the goal for the mission of fundraising $200 million for St. Jude. With a $50 million pledge from Elon Musk following splashdown, the mission exceeded this goal by $10 million. 

The recent commercialization of space travel has caught criticism as billionaires like Jeff Bezos’s fly to space in what one New York Magazine article called “a grotesque spectacle.” Critics highlight the disparage between the riches of America’s billionaires and the world’s destitute and the environmental impacts of spaceflight. 

I don’t disregard the validity to some of these claims, but I fear they take a step too far in denouncing commercial spaceflight altogether.

Commercial spaceflight is the next step for space travel, and Inspiration4 is setting the tone of what this new era in space could, and should, mean. 

Of course, spaceflight must be realistic. As much as spaceflight is about going, it has to be grounded in life back on Earth. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 1,780 children and adolescents in the U.S. will die from cancer in 2021. Inspiration4 reminds us that as we turn towards the universe’s unknown, we cannot lose sight of the issues in our own home. 

But sometimes people try to force a dichotomy here, saying space travel must halt until our problems at home are solved. But in 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, the U.S. was embroiled in the tense Cold War. Still, that was no reason to turn our backs to the cosmos. Instead, that was the very reason to go. 

No, we still haven’t solved all Earth’s problems. We never will completely eradicate evil. There are new wars, new diseases, new debates. But that is still no reason to not go. In fact, curing cancer and exploring space often go hand in hand. For years, researchers on the International Space Station have used the microgravity of space to better understand cell behavior, function and changes that may lead to cancer. 

Solving the world’s problems, including cancer, and space exploration do not have to be mutually exclusive. 

Instead, not only has Inspiration4 offered over $200 million to solve this problem, but it also offers a piece of hope.

During the flight, the four astronauts hosted a question-and-answer session with St. Jude patients. They asked about where the astronauts sleep and what they eat as Arceneaux floated upside-down on camera and soared around the capsule collecting suspended peanut M&M’s. 

For these children who have experienced more suffering than most, Arceneaux, who was once in their shoes, shines a beacon to their future and calls them forward towards hope. Despite what they are going through, each child lit up with that childlike joy of talking to an astronaut. 

Yes, the world is broken, but these children have something to teach us about hoping through pain. 

Space travel is, therefore, not a dichotomy but a duality. We can take a next step in faith, even when problems swirl and tempt to pull us back. Whether its space travel or in everyday life, if we waited until every problem was solved, we’d never get to lift off.

Hale is the editor-in-chief. Follow her on Twitter at @HaleJacquelineR.