Meet Jared Isaacman, an entrepreneur who is set to create history with first-ever private spacewalk

Jared Isaacman, the 41-year-old billionaire entrepreneur, will lead the Polaris Dawn mission, making history with the first-ever private spacewalk. Backed by SpaceX, Isaacman and his team will launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, embarking on a five-day mission that will take them further from Earth than any crewed flight since the Apollo missions.

Isaacman, who founded Shift4 Payments at 16, has amassed considerable wealth through his payment processing company, which now processes over $260 billion annually and serves major clients like Hilton and KFC. In addition to his business success, Isaacman is recognized in the aviation community for breaking the record for the fastest flight around the world in a light jet, completing it in 61 hours, 51 minutes, and 15 seconds. He also established Draken International, which has the largest private fleet of military jets and trains Air Force pilots.

The Polaris Dawn mission team includes former Air Force pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. A standout feature of this mission is the private spacewalk, during which Isaacman and Gillis will test new SpaceX spacesuits outside the spacecraft.


Isaacman's space journey follows his earlier accomplishment with the 2021 Inspiration4 mission, which was the first all-civilian spaceflight.

Earlier this week, SpaceX postponed the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission for the second time this week, citing unfavourable weather conditions off the coast of Florida, where the crew capsule is expected to splash down after completing its journey. The mission, which aims to carry four civilians into Earth's orbit and conduct the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens, was initially scheduled to launch from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre on Tuesday but was first delayed due to helium leak.

The Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three planned under the Polaris Program, a collaborative human-spaceflight project between Isaacman and SpaceX. The mission's primary objectives include reaching an altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometres), higher than any crewed mission since Nasa’s Apollo 17 in 1972, and performing a historic spacewalk at an altitude of 435 miles (700 kilometres) above Earth.