Isaacman will be one of four citizen astronauts to return to Earth’s orbit with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the riskiest mission yet in the world of private space tourism.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is to return to Earth’s orbit this August for the riskiest mission yet in the world of private space tourism.
Isaacman – who self-funded a previous orbit of Earth in 2021 – is among a crew of four who will launch from Florida on 26 August on a mission for Elon Musk’s SpaceX to conduct the first privately managed spacewalk in which astronauts leave a spacecraft.
The privately funded Polaris Dawn mission will fly the highest Earth orbit ever at 870 miles – surpassing a record set in 1966 by Gemini 11. It will explore Earth’s radiation belt and see two astronauts ‘walk’ outside the craft. Spacewalks have only ever been performed by government astronauts until now.
The crew includes Isaacman’s friend Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, and SpaceX Lead Space Operations Engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. The crew have trained for two years, and all will don SpaceX’s spacesuits while two venture (tethered) out of the craft.
Isaacman, the CEO of electronic payment company Shift4 has funded the mission with sums thought to total hundreds of millions of dollars. He said of the mission:
Billionaire Jared Isaacman to make history with SpaceX Polaris Dawn spacewalk
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