In an inspiring tale of success against all odds, Jared Isaacman, a former high school dropout turned billionaire space tourist, is set to make history as the first private astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. The journey began for Isaacman in the late ’90s when he decided to leave high school at 16 years old and founded his own payment-processing company, Shift4 Payments, while living in his parents’ basement. Today, Shift4 handles more than $260 billion in payments annually for over 200,000 customers across the globe.
Isaacman’s path to success didn’t stop at Shift4, however, as he went on to found Draken International, a defense firm that trains US Air Force pilots. In addition to his business ventures, Isaacman has been an avid pilot since completing a record-breaking journey around the world in 2009 – the fastest flight of its kind. This love for flying led him to become an investor in SpaceX and eventually fund and lead the first civilian mission to space aboard Elon Musk’s Dragon capsule.
Now, Isaacman is preparing for another historic feat: becoming the first private astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. The upcoming five-day trip will take him and his crew members further into space than any civilian has gone before, surpassing NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. During this mission, Isaacman will also become the first person to test SpaceX’s latest spacesuits during a two-hour spacewalk.
As a billionaire with an undeniable passion for exploration and innovation, Isaacman hopes his journey will help pave the way for future human space exploration, potentially even witnessing humans walking on the moon and Mars in his lifetime.
