Song from Grammy award-winning rock band Kings of Leon one of several items to be auctioned beginning Sept. 9 to support $200 million fundraising effort for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Sept. 9, 2021) – Astronauts have long brought interesting items into space, dating back to the very first Mercury mission in 1961. But with Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit, the crew will be taking not just personal mementos but things that didn’t exist even a year ago, much less 60 years ago. Indeed, their payload will include the first-ever minted NFT song to be played in orbit, created by the Grammy Award-winning rock band Kings of Leon.

VIDEO CAPTION: This September, we’re taking the next epic leap forward into space exploration. 4 civilians. Orbiting earth. On their own. Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is a documentary series that will cover the events in near real-time, airing in five parts leading up to and after the mission, only on Netflix. EPISODES 1/2: MEET THE CREW – WATCH GLOBALLY ON NETFLIX SEPT 6 EPISODES 3/4: PREPARE FOR LAUNCH – […]

TIME Studios & Known to Produce with “30 for 30” Creator Connor Schell as Executive Producer for the Groundbreaking Project

(New York, NY — February 11, 2021) TIME’s Emmy award-winning television and film division TIME Studios has partnered with the studio division of Emmy & Peabody award-winning marketing firm Known to acquire the competitive documentary rights to Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to space.

Announced last week and featured at this year’s Super Bowl, the Inspiration4 mission will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 37-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments and an accomplished pilot, philanthropist and adventurer. Isaacman is donating the three mission seats alongside him to members of the public who best exemplify the humanitarian pillars of the mission. Two of these seats are currently open to the public through a fundraising contest and an online competition using Shift4’s new ecommerce platform, Shift4Shop.com.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

With the spate of announcements about private space missions over the past year, it’s easy to lose track of the who, what, where, when, why and how of the flights.

As a public service, Parabolic Arc has collected information about all five of the announced missions.

HAWTHORNE, Calif. (SpaceX PR) — Plans for the world’s first all-civilian mission to space were announced today from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. The mission is being targeted for the fourth quarter of this year and will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 37-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments [NYSE:FOUR] and an accomplished pilot.

Named Inspiration4 in recognition of the four-person crew’s mission to inspire support for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® and send a humanitarian message of possibility, the journey represents a new era for human spaceflight and exploration. Isaacman is donating the three mission seats alongside him to crew members who will be selected to represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.