Meet Jared Isaacman, the billionaire leading SpaceX's risky mission to take the first private space walk

• Jared Isaacman is set to lead the first private space walk, in the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission.
• The mission will test SpaceX's new space suits, with two crew members performing a space walk.
• Isaacman went on the first civilian SpaceX mission, Inspiration4, in 2021.

SpaceX is readying a mission to conduct the world's first private space walk — and it's being led by the billionaire Jared Isaacman.

Isaacman and another crew member plan to test SpaceX's new extravehicular space suits in the first-ever commercial space walk. The suits are designed for increased mobility, and a mask display shows information such as internal pressure levels and temperature.

It's not Isaacman's first time in space.

Three years ago, he helped finance and led a SpaceX trip on the company's first private crewed mission, along with a group of three other civilians.

But his latest mission, called Polaris Dawn, is significant, both because of the space walk and because the crew plans to travel farther than any other mission since the Apollo era. It's also an especially risky mission, as the crew is set to fly through a radiation belt.

The group had plans to depart from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida earlier this week, though the event was delayed because of weather conditions.

The new launch date remains unknown, as the reusable booster of one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets failed Wednesday while landing on a drone ship at sea. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, and SpaceX may need to seek approval for other launches.

Meanwhile, Isaacman said on social media Thursday that the crew was "ready to launch within approximately 30 hours of receiving a favorable forecast."

The mission is set to last about five days, and three other nonastronaut crew members plan to join the mission, including the retired US Air Force pilot Scott Poteet and the SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.

Isaacman decided to drop out of high school at the age of 15.

At the age of 15, Isaacman decided to drop out of high school and take the GED, according to the Netflix docuseries "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space."

"I was a horrible student," Isaacman said in the series. "And I wasn't, like, happy in school, either."

He described his younger self as independent and said he didn't understand things like raising your hand to go to the bathroom.

At 16, he founded a multibillion-dollar payment-processing company in his parents' basement.

Isaacman founded United Bank Card in 1999.

The company, now called Shift4, offers mobile-payment software, point-of-sale solutions, and online payments for various businesses.

Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that when he started the company, he would wake up every day at 7:30 a.m. and fall asleep on the keyboard at 2 or 3 in the morning.

By 2020, he took the company public. Today, Shift4 processes over $260 billion annually and serves over 200,000 customers, according to its website.

Isaacman has a wife and two kids.

Isaacman has known his wife, Monica Isaacman, for most of his life. The two come from the same town and got married in 2012. They now live in New Jersey with their two daughters.

His wife said in the docuseries that she had good and bad dreams leading up to his first SpaceX mission. She said while she wouldn't want him to compromise on his dreams of going to space, she worried about what could happen if something went wrong.

He also founded Draken International.

Isaacman founded Draken International in 2012. The company is a private aircraft provider that also trains pilots for the US military, the UK, and NATO countries .

In 2019, Isaacman sold the company to Blackstone.

Isaacman became a billionaire in 2019.

Isaacman hit billionaire status in 2020 after selling Draken International and taking Shift4 public. His net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.

He always had a passion for flying planes.

Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that he took an early interest in flying and went to flight school at a local airport in 2004. At the time, he was feeling burned out from starting his company and described flying as "therapeutic." Isaacman also set a world speed record for flying around the globe in 2009.

"I do believe you only get one crack at life," Isaacman said in the docuseries. "To the extent you have the means to do so, you have this obligation to live life to the fullest. You never know when it's going to be your last day."

He added in the docuseries that this philosophy had taken him to fly in air shows as part of a seven-ship formation aerobatic team and on mountain-climbing expeditions in Antarctica.

He's involved with philanthropy.

Isaacman has been involved in several charitable causes and organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

His first SpaceX mission raised over $240 million for St. Jude and was named Inspiration4 to inspire support and raise awareness for the research hospital.

Isaacman and his wife have also committed to The Giving Pledge, a charitable campaign founded by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010. The Giving Pledge serves as a commitment from wealthy people to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

Isaacman's first mission to space took place in 2021.

In 2021, Isaacman funded and led the first civilian mission to space, called Inspiration4 . The mission was carried out by SpaceX 's Dragon capsule.

Isaacman previously told Business Insider that the prep for the mission was extensive and involved a lot of studying and physical tests.

"The academics were pretty intense," Isaacman said, adding that there were thousands of pages across a hundred manuals to learn about SpaceX's Falcon and Dragon aircraft.

It also involved crew members drawing blood from each other and learning how to take skin samples to prepare for increased radiation levels on the trip.

Correction: August 30, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the number of children Isaacman has and the type of team he participated in during air shows. He has two children and flew in an aerobatic team, not an acrobatic team.

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