Florida man who gave his space flight to a friend is ‘insanely disappointed’ he couldn’t go
A Florida man who gave the out-of-this-world gift of space travel to his college roommate still feels disappointed he wasn’t able to go on the historic flight himself.
Kyle Hippchen finally identified himself as the anonymous winner of a 2021 sweepstakes who gave his trip to the final frontier to a longtime friend, Chris Sembroski.
Hippchen, who weighs 330 pounds, paid $600 for multiple chances to win the contest before he learned there was a weight limit of 250 pounds.
“I was trying to figure how I could drop 80 pounds in six months, which, I mean, it’s possible, but it’s not the most healthy thing in the world to do,” Hippchen, who is an Endeavor Air captain, told The Associated Press.
Sembroski was one of four people aboard the SpaceX’s Sept. 15 launch, which marked the first flight with only private citizens to reach orbit.
Hippchen, who attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida with Sembroski, had not previously identified himself publicly as the original winner of the sweepstakes.
He now admits to feeling “insanely disappointed” that he wasn’t able to go to space aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft for the mission known as Inspiration4, and says he hasn’t watched a Netflix series covering the feat.
“It hurts too much,” Hippchen said, before adding, “But it is what it is.”
Hippchen recently went to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for the first time since having to skip the Inspiration4 launch last year.
The 42-year-old Sembroski was joined on the September trip to space by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who chartered the flight and served as its commander, as well as geology professor Sian Proctor and St. Jude’s physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux.
“Kyle’s willingness to gift his seat to Chris was an incredible act of generosity,” Isaacman wrote in an email.
Before their flight, the group was pictured on a cover of Time magazine.
“To be a part of this Inspiration4 mission, it feels just so overwhelmingly satisfying and amazing,” Sembroski, who is from Everett, Wash., told Space.com before the launch. “I feel so blessed that there was so much generosity forwarded to me to make this all happen.”
The data engineer also told the website that he was shocked to receive the invitation.
“I knew I was not the most physically stellar fit person that you have out there, and I was OK with that,” Sembroski said during that September interview.
Sembroski kept Hippchen in mind on the day of the flight, using his call from the launch tower to thank his friend before liftoff. Sembroski also brought several of Hippchen’s possessions, including a Purple Heart awarded to a great-uncle during World War I, with him into space.
With News Wire Services
