Inspiration4 Crew Member Watched Spaceballs Before Splashdown

On 18 September 2021, a few hours before the Inspiration4 crew splashed down off the coast of Florida, a viewer watching the live feed from inside the capsule noticed something on a screen: crew member Chris Sembroski appeared to be watching Spaceballs, Mel Brooks's 1987 parody of Star Wars. The screenshot spread quickly, SpaceX founder Elon Musk reportedly replied that it was one of his favourite films, and a historic flight gained a very human footnote.

The moment is small, but it says something about the mission. Inspiration4 was the first orbital spaceflight with a crew made up entirely of private citizens, and its members spent three days doing what people do on long journeys: working, resting, looking out of the window and, apparently, watching a comedy. Here is the story of the clip and the flight around it, with a few facts that often get mixed up corrected along the way.

The tweet that spotted the movie

The crew's cabin was streamed online during parts of the mission. On the final day, Twitter user Owen Sparks posted a screenshot and tagged both Sembroski and Musk, guessing that the SpaceX boss would approve of the film choice.

Chris Sembroski is watching SPACE BALLS while getting ready for splashdown 😂 @ChrisSembroski I think @elonmusk would approve pic.twitter.com/g1zdhNy4Mx

— Owen Sparks 🌎 (@OwenSparks_) September 18, 2021

Fans of the film enjoyed the irony. Spaceballs pokes fun at big-budget space adventures, merchandising and the very idea of heroic space travel, so watching it on a real spacecraft was a perfect in-joke. It was never confirmed what else was on the crew's playlist, and a screenshot cannot tell us how long it was on screen or who was watching at any given moment. It is best enjoyed for what it is: a glimpse of downtime during a long trip.

What Inspiration4 was

Inspiration4 launched on 15 September 2021 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The crew rode in the Crew Dragon capsule Resilience, which had been fitted with a large glass dome, or cupola, in place of the docking hatch used for space station trips.

The mission was bought and commanded by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, founder of the payments company Shift4. It did not visit the International Space Station. Instead, Resilience orbited on its own for about three days before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida on the evening of 18 September.

The flight had two stated goals: to show that ordinary people could fly to orbit, and to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. By the end of the campaign, the fundraising total was reported at more than $240 million, including large personal donations from Isaacman and Musk.

The four crew members

• Jared Isaacman, commander: a businessman and experienced jet pilot who funded the flight.
• Hayley Arceneaux, medical officer: a physician assistant at St. Jude and a childhood bone-cancer survivor treated at the hospital. At 29 she became the youngest American in orbit and the first person to fly to space with a prosthetic body part.
• Sian Proctor, pilot: a geoscientist, educator and artist who won her seat through an entrepreneurship contest. She became the first Black woman to serve as a spacecraft pilot.
• Chris Sembroski, mission specialist: an aerospace engineer and US Air Force veteran. His seat came from a charity raffle; a friend won it and passed it to him.

After landing, Proctor thanked everyone who supported the mission:

Nothing but #gratitude!! Thank you to everyone who helped make our mission a success and supported us through this historic journey. 😊👩🏾‍🚀🚀🌏🐉@inspiration4x @SpaceX #Space2inspire https://t.co/W0PgPn6fpu

— Dr. Sian “Leo” Proctor (@DrSianProctor) September 19, 2021

Moments after splashdown, Isaacman radioed: "That was a heck of a ride for us, and we're just getting started", as reported by Al Jazeera.

Getting the facts right

Coverage of the flight at the time, and the viral posts that followed, contained a few claims worth correcting:

• "No trained astronauts on board." The crew were not career government astronauts, but they trained for about six months, including centrifuge runs, simulator sessions, zero-gravity flights and emergency drills. SpaceX controlled the flight from the ground, and the capsule flew autonomously.
• "The farthest humans had been since Apollo." Not quite. Inspiration4 reached roughly 585 km (about 360 miles), well above the International Space Station at around 420 km. That was the highest crewed orbit since the Space Shuttle's STS-103 Hubble servicing mission in 1999, and earlier flights such as Gemini 11 went far higher, so it was not the farthest since 1972.
• "It cost $200 million." The price Isaacman paid SpaceX was never officially disclosed. The $200 million figure often attached to the flight is closer to the amount the mission raised for St. Jude. Press estimates of the ticket price varied and should be treated as estimates.

Space tourism in 2021 and since

Inspiration4 came during a busy summer for private spaceflight. On 11 July 2021, Richard Branson flew to the edge of space aboard Virgin Galactic's Unity 22. On 20 July, Jeff Bezos flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard. Both of those flights were suborbital, lasting minutes rather than days, and reaching space briefly before falling back to Earth. Inspiration4 was in a different league, circling the planet roughly every 90 minutes.

The criticism raised at the time has not gone away. Many people questioned whether billionaires should spend so much on spaceflight while so many needs go unmet on Earth. Supporters answered that private money drives down launch costs, funds research and, in this case, raised a large sum for children's cancer care. Both points can be true at once, and readers will weigh them differently.

Isaacman went on to fly again. In September 2024 he commanded Polaris Dawn, another privately funded SpaceX mission, during which he and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis carried out the first commercial spacewalk.

Why a comedy on a spacecraft stuck with people

Spaceflight is usually presented as heroic and serious. Seeing a crew member relax with a silly film made the mission feel relatable. Long-duration astronauts on the space station regularly watch films and television in their off-hours too, and crews often say that routine and familiar entertainment help them unwind.

If you want to see more of the mission, Netflix's documentary series Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space follows the crew from selection and training through launch and splashdown. It shows the work behind the flight as well as the lighter moments, which is the best context for a viral screenshot like this one.

Sources: Wikipedia: Inspiration4; Al Jazeera: Space tourists come back to Earth after three days in orbit; Wikipedia: Hayley Arceneaux; Wikipedia: Sian Proctor; Wikipedia: Polaris Dawn; Futurism: SpaceX tourist watches movie; Netflix: Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space; Wikipedia: Spaceballs.