Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is preparing for his second journey into space in three years, as he gears up to embark on the Polaris Dawn mission, a project backed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, the 41-year-old Isaacman is set to join a four-member crew aiming to travel farther from Earth than any space tourist has ventured before. According to the New York Post, the mission will take place in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will also see Isaacman become the first private citizen to complete a “spacewalk” during the five-day expedition.
Joining Isaacman on the Polaris Dawn mission are two SpaceX engineers, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who will make history as the first company employees to participate in an orbital mission. The team, which also includes pilot Scott Poteet, is expected to enter an elliptical orbit reaching up to 1,400 kilometers above Earth — a record-setting altitude for a crewed mission. If successful, Gillis and Menon will also become the first women to undertake such a journey.
Mission Overview and Crew Details
The Polaris Dawn mission is projected to last approximately five days. The crew will attempt to achieve the highest orbit around Earth for a human mission since NASA’s Apollo program in the 1970s. As part of the mission’s ambitious goals, the crew will conduct research on radiation exposure and collect crucial data for future deep-space missions to the moon and Mars.
Jared Isaacman, the mission’s financier, is the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a company specializing in payment processing services and point-of-sale software. Forbes estimates his net worth at around $1.9 billion. Isaacman’s passion for aviation began as a hobby; he learned to pilot fighter jets and set a record for flying around the world in just over 61 hours. He also co-founded Draken International, which now owns the largest private fleet of military jets and provides training for Air Force pilots. After selling his majority stake in Draken to Blackstone in 2019 for a nine-figure sum, Isaacman’s wealth increased significantly, reaching billionaire status when Shift4 Payments went public in 2020.
The upcoming Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three planned under the Polaris Program, funded and executed by Isaacman and SpaceX. This mission marks his second foray into space, following his initial journey in 2021 on the Inspiration4 mission, a self-funded trip launched by SpaceX.
The Goals and Risks of the Polaris Dawn Mission
Polaris Dawn is not only remarkable for its duration but also for its scientific ambitions and inherent risks. During the mission, Isaacman and his three crewmates will venture farther from Earth than any human spaceflight since the Apollo missions. According to the New York Post, their scientific objectives include researching radiation exposure in space and gathering data that will be invaluable for future missions targeting the moon and Mars.
A groundbreaking moment is expected to occur on the third day of the journey, when Isaacman and Sarah Gillis are slated to perform the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens. They will open the hatch of their Crew Dragon capsule, tether themselves, and lean outside, exposing themselves to the harsh environment of outer space. Each participant will spend about 15 minutes outside the spacecraft to test the spacesuits, which will be connected to the capsule by 12-foot-long umbilical cords supplying oxygen.
The mission will also involve traversing Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, where the crew will be exposed to intense radiation. The team will conduct an experiment to determine whether radiation in space can produce X-ray images without an X-ray machine, as reported by Forbes.
Launch Details and Preparations
The Polaris Dawn mission is set to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida between 3:38 and 7:09 a.m. ET on Wednesday, following a 24-hour delay from the originally scheduled time. SpaceX announced on Monday that the delay was necessary to “take a closer look at a ground-side helium leak” on a piece of equipment intended to detach from the rocket during takeoff.
