The 1st Black Woman To Pilot A Spacecraft Says Seeing Earth Was The Best Part

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The passengers of Inspiration4 in the Dragon capsule on their first day in space. They are Jared Isaacman (from left), Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor.

SpaceX/AP

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Proctor, with fellow crewmates Jared Isaacman, physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux and data engineer Chris Sembroski, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 15. Isaacman, the billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments, chartered the spacecraft from SpaceX and invited the others to join him.

The four, aboard a Dragon crew capsule, splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean last Saturday.

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But Proctor kept in mind that there was always a chance that something could go wrong. She shared a poem, based on one by Robert Frost, that she wrote to her family before the launch in case she did not make it back.

She calls it Last Gold:

Nature’s last green is also gold

Her boldest moment, we behold

Her decaying end of power

A beautiful, bright golden hour

Flowers turned to wreaths

Gaia rejoices in grief

Dusk turns a shattered gray

One last gasp of golden ray.

«I just wanted to have that there so that they knew how I felt,» Proctor says.

• Inspiration4
• SpaceX