{"id":7141,"date":"2022-01-27T06:29:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T06:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/27\/meet-the-man-who-won-a-trip-to-space-and-gave-it-to-a-friend\/"},"modified":"2022-01-27T06:29:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T06:29:05","slug":"meet-the-man-who-won-a-trip-to-space-and-gave-it-to-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/27\/meet-the-man-who-won-a-trip-to-space-and-gave-it-to-a-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the man who won a trip to space and gave it to a friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — He told his family and a few friends. He dropped hints to a couple of colleagues. So hardly anyone knew that the airline pilot could have \u2014 should have \u2014 been on board when SpaceX launched its first tourists into orbit last year.<\/p>\n

Meet Kyle Hippchen, the real winner of a first-of-its-kind sweepstakes, who gave his seat to his college roommate.<\/p>\n

Though Hippchen\u2019s secret is finally out, that doesn\u2019t make it any easier knowing he missed his chance to orbit Earth because he exceeded the weight limit. He still hasn\u2019t watched the Netflix series on the three-day flight purchased by a tech entrepreneur for himself and three guests last September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurts too much,” he said. \u201cI\u2019m insanely disappointed. But it is what it is.”<\/p>\n

Hippchen, 43, a Florida-based captain for Delta’s regional carrier Endeavor Air, recently shared his story with The Associated Press during his first visit to NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center since his lost rocket ride.<\/p>\n

He opened up about his out-of-the-blue, dream-come-true windfall, the letdown when he realized he topped SpaceX’s weight restrictions of 250 pounds (113 kilograms) and his offer to the one person he knew would treasure the flight as much as himself. Four months later, he figures probably fewer than 50 people know he was the actual winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was their show, and I didn\u2019t want to be distracting too much from what they were doing,\u201d said Hippchen, who watched the launch from a VIP balcony.<\/p>\n

His seat went to Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington. The pair roomed together starting in the late 1990s while attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They\u2019d pile into cars with other student space geeks and make the hourlong drive south for NASA\u2019s shuttles launches. They also belonged to a space advocacy group, going to Washington to push commercial space travel.<\/p>\n

Despite living on opposite coasts, Hippchen and Sembroski continued to swap space news and champion the cause. Neither could resist when Shift4 Payments founder and CEO Jared Isaacman raffled off a seat on the flight he purchased from SpaceX\u2019s Elon Musk. The beneficiary was St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital.<\/p>\n

Hippchen snapped up $600 worth of entries. Sembroski, about to start a new job at Lockheed Martin, shelled out $50. With 72,000 entries in the random drawing last February, neither figured he\u2019d win and didn\u2019t bother telling the other.<\/p>\n

By early March, Hippchen started receiving vague emails seeking details about himself. That\u2019s when he read the contest\u2019s small print: The winner had to be under 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds (2 meters and 113 kilograms).<\/p>\n

Hippchen was 5-foot-10 and 330 pounds (1.8 meters and 150 kilograms).<\/p>\n

He told organizers he was pulling out, figuring he was only one of many finalists. In the flurry of emails and calls that followed, Hippchen was stunned to learn he\u2019d won.<\/p>\n

With a September launch planned, the timeline was tight. Still new at flying people, SpaceX needed to start measuring its first private passengers for their custom-fitted flight suits and capsule seats. As an aerospace engineer and pilot, Hippchen knew the weight limit was a safety issue involving the seats, and could not be exceeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to figure how I could drop 80 pounds in six months, which, I mean, it\u2019s possible, but it\u2019s not the most healthy thing in the world to do,\u201d Hippchen said.<\/p>\n

Isaacman, the spaceflight\u2019s sponsor, allowed Hippchen to pick a stand-in.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle\u2019s willingness to gift his seat to Chris was an incredible act of generosity,” he said in an email this week.<\/p>\n

Isaacman introduced his passengers at the end of March: a St. Jude physician assistant who beat cancer there as a child; a community college educator who was Shift4 Payments\u2019 winning business client; and Sembroski.<\/p>\n

Hippchen joined them in April to watch SpaceX launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, the company\u2019s last crew flight before their own.<\/p>\n

In gratitude, Sembroski offered to take personal items into space for Hippchen. He gathered his high school and college rings, airline captain epaulets, a great-uncle\u2019s World War I Purple Heart and odds and ends from his best friends from high school, warning, \u201cDon\u2019t ask any details.\u201d<\/p>\n

By launch day on Sept. 15, word had gotten around. As friends and families gathered for the liftoff, Hippchen said the conversation went like this: \u201cMy name\u2019s Kyle. Are you The Kyle? Yeah, I\u2019m The Kyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before climbing into SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule, Sembroski followed tradition and used the phone atop the launch tower to make his one allotted call. He called Hippchen and thanked him one more time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m forever grateful,\u201d Sembroski said.<\/p>\n

And while Hippchen didn\u2019t get to see Earth from orbit, he did get to experience about 10 minutes of weightlessness. During Sembroski\u2019s flight, he joined friends and family of the crew on a special zero-gravity plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n