About Hayley:

Hayley Arceneaux is a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital physician assistant, a career she committed to at age ten, after surviving pediatric bone cancer. She is also now a member of the SpaceX medical team, where she helps medically train commercial astronauts. She joined SpaceX's first private spaceflight, Inspiration4, on September 15, 2021, and successfully water-landed three days later. At age twenty-nine, she became the youngest American to orbit the earth, the first pediatric cancer survivor in space, and the first astronaut with a prosthetic body part.

ABOUT WILD RIDE

In this boldly optimistic debut memoir, Hayley Arceneaux details how she overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to grab hold of a life greater than she’d ever imagined. With her signature upbeat messaging, Arceneaux recounts her odyssey, from her cancer diagnosis at age ten and the yearlong treatment that inspired her goal of working with pediatric cancer patients, to living through her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis, to getting her lifelong dream job at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a physician assistant. She was sure she’d finally attained the life she wanted, and then the amazing and unimaginable happened: She was invited to go to space as a St. Jude ambassador.

Throughout the book, Arceneaux provides encouragement to anyone feeling like the odds are against them:

• You have to hold on, because you don’t know what great thing can come and change your life.

• Take the chance and you will feel, and learn, and grow, and become even more you.

• Following your dreams can take you to dreams you didn’t know you had.

Arceneaux’s uplifting story is the inspiration we all need today. She offers wisdom and lessons in courage to anyone fighting against the odds. And through it all, she reveals how resilience and faith can help us grab hold of the life we’ve always wanted and live it to the fullest.

PRIOR MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

• TODAY - Astronaut Hayley Arceneaux inspires St. Jude cancer patients

• TODAY - SpaceX civilian astronaut Hayley Arceneaux and mom talk her historic trip to space

• The New York Times - Highlights From the SpaceX Inspiration4 Astronauts’ Splashdown

• CBS News - Busy day in orbit for SpaceX's all-civilian Inspiration4 crew

• Reuters - All-civilian SpaceX crew feels only 'good kind' of jitters before launch

• People - Astronaut-in-Training Hayley Arceneaux Shares Message for Kids with Cancer: You Can Go to Space Too

• ABC News - Soon-to-be youngest American in space shares how surviving cancer helped prepare her for mission

• CBS This Morning - Meet the first all-civilian crew about to orbit Earth in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule

• TIME - Meet the Inspiration4 Team, the World's First all Non-Astronaut Space Crew

• Associated Press - Two space fans get seats on billionaire's private flight

• Axios - Hayley Arceneaux is a new kind of space explorer

• NPR - Hayley Arceneaux, Bone Cancer Survivor, Set To Become Youngest American In Space

• Associated Press - Bone cancer survivor to join billionaire on SpaceX flight