SpaceX’s first all-civilian crew say they’re taking a ukulele, poetry, and a copy of TIME magazine to space

• SpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew are set to take a ukulele, poetry, and NFTs to space on Wednesday.
• The items will be auctioned off to raise money for a hospital where one of the crew members works.
• Chris Sembroski, who is taking the ukulele, said the “acoustics are pretty good” on board.
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The crew of SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 mission are taking a ukulele, artwork, and NFTs on their three-day trip around the Earth.

This is SpaceX’s first fully private human spaceflight, and it is scheduled to launch on Wednesday evening from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The four people on board, none of whom are professional astronauts, are Jared Isaacman, a billionaire businessman; Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant and childhood cancer survivor; Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran; and Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and science communication specialist.

Sembroski, who is a Lockheed Martin employee, said in a SpaceX press conference on Tuesday that he wanted to play his ukulele onboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship.

“I’m very excited that I’ll be able to try my hand at playing some music on the ukulele up in space,” he said. “I apologize for any ears listening intently but I’ll give it my best shot.”

He added that “the acoustics are pretty good in Dragon.”

The items they want to take to space will be auctioned to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, where Arceneaux works as a physician assistant.

These include 51 non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including one by rock band Kings of Leon, according to a mission statement sent Friday.

“We’re going to jam to it in orbit and later auction it,” Arceneaux said in the SpaceX press conference on Tuesday.

The other 50 NFTs up for auction are pieces of art created by different artists, Inspiration4’s statement said.

Proctor said in the Tuesday press conference that she was taking her own art and poetry into space, as well as artwork from students at the community college where she teaches.

The crew is also planning to pack a TIME magazine with their autographs on, Inspiration4 mission jackets, and toys based on characters from the animated children’s series “Space Racers,” the statement said.