Former Shreveporter to Become Youngest American in Space

Following today's launch, she'll also become the first cancer survivor to visit space.

This is simply the one of the most amazing stories you'll ever read, even if you take away the incredibly cool Shreveport connection. Hayley Arceneaux is about to become not only the youngest American to ever visit space, but also the first cancer survivor and first person with a prosthesis to do so as well.

That's a lot of incredibly cool details to add to an already incredible life-story, and she's only 29 years old. Hayley was born and raised in St. Francisville, Louisiana. I wonder if she's also the first Cajun to visit space?

At just age 10, she began to fight for her life. What started as an achey knee was quickly determined to be something far much worse, and life-changing. A few months after noticing the odd pain in her knee, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which is a type of cancer found in bones. From there, Hayley and her family put their faith the hands of the wonderful people at St. Jude's Children Hospital. Her road to recovery was a very long one. Following the diagnosis, she endured twelve grueling rounds of chemotherapy. a limb-preservation surgery, a titanium rod in her thigh, and countless hours of physical therapy.

According to Wikipedia, her experience as a child, "Inspired her to want to work with other cancer patients at St. Jude when she grew up as a physician assistant with leukemia and lymphoma patients.

During her education, she graduated from St. Joseph's Academy in Baton Rouge, before obtaining her Physician Assistant degree in 2016 from LSU Health in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Now, the former Shreveporter is set for the ride of her life, as she boards SpaceX's first private spaceflight with three other civilians. Here's what SpaceX says about the historic mission;

Inspiration4 is the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit. The mission will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shift4 Payments and an accomplished pilot and adventurer. Named in recognition of the four-person crew that will raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, this milestone represents a new era for human spaceflight and exploration.

The launch is scheduled to take place at 7:00 PM CT, September 15th. You can watch the launch live below.