A tech billionaire conducted the first private spacewalk hundreds of miles above Earth on Thursday, marking a significant moment in space exploration that was previously limited to professional astronauts.
Jared Isaacman, a New Jersey native and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4, partnered with SpaceX to test the company’s new spacesuits during his chartered flight. The mission included a spacewalk where SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis followed Isaacman once he was safely back inside the spacecraft.
At 41, Isaacman has chosen not to reveal his investment in this flight, which is the first of three planned missions he calls Polaris, with this particular one named Polaris Dawn. In 2021, he organized SpaceX’s inaugural private flight, which included a group of contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Before this mission, only 263 individuals from 12 different countries had completed a spacewalk, a feat famously initiated by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965, followed by NASA astronaut Ed White shortly after.
Isaacman’s journey to this milestone began in 2004 when he started flying lessons, and he set a world record for circling the globe in 2009. He earned a degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2011 and is a family man with two daughters.
According to Forbes, Isaacman launched Shift4 from his parents’ basement in New Jersey in 1999 at just 16 years old. The company now processes payments for a significant portion of American restaurants and hotels. He took the company public in June 2020 and holds 38% of its stock.
In addition, he founded Draken International in 2011, a defense firm with the largest private military aircraft fleet in the world, which trains U.S. Air Force pilots. He later sold a majority stake in the company for a substantial profit.
Isaacman is estimated to have a net worth of $1.9 billion.