Billionaire who flew to orbit with SpaceX buys three new missions to space

The Verge ^ | Feb 14, 2022, 8:54am EST | Loren Grush

[BenLurkin]

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who flew to Earth orbit on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule last year, plans to fly with SpaceX again. Today, Isaacman announced that he’s purchased three additional upcoming flights with SpaceX, a series of missions called “Polaris” that would take him deeper into space on the company’s spacecraft.

Isaacman, who made his fortune through his payment processing company Shift4 Payments, made headlines last year when he bankrolled an entire SpaceX Crew Dragon passenger mission in September, dubbed Inspiration4. He filled the three remaining seats on the vehicle with other civilian astronauts, including a childhood cancer survivor, an engineer, and a professor. The quartet all trained and eventually flew to orbit together on a three-day trip while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The three flights he’s bought include two missions on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon that would fly to super-high orbits around Earth — building block missions that would eventually lead to the first crewed flight on the company’s massive new Starship rocket. On the first Crew Dragon trip, called Polaris Dawn, Isaacman plans to fly again. He’s filling the remaining seats with two SpaceX employees, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, as well as Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a former Air Force pilot who was the mission director for Inspiration4. And the flight would also serve as another St. Jude fundraising opportunity.

Jared Isaacman (left) and the rest of the Polaris Dawn crew Image: Polaris

[markman46]

that blonde is part of spacex operations, and married to one of the new class of nasa astro’s

[markman46]

also going to do the first dragon space walk... 4th qt 2022..

[cgbg]

Interesting discussion of the Apollo Command Module:

https://www.aulis.com/command_module.htm

[telescope115]

I forgot about Gemini 11. According to Wikipedia, the highest point in its orbit was 739.2 miles! I didn’t realize it went that high.

[markman46]

Gemini 11 record of 1,300 km, so ya 740 miles.. two person EVA...

read all about it at nasaspaceflight.com

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=55805.0

its free

[telescope115]

Thanks.

[PIF]

that blonde is part of spacex operations, and married to one of the new class of nasa astro’s
—
landing a billionaire tops a NASA astronaut.

[markman46]

the said billionaire is very married and has kids..

[markman46]

no problem

check out the website too lots of details

https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/

[telescope115]

I get it now. Our first civilian astronaut corp, and they all look eminently qualified to be up there. I was equating this with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flights, sending up paying customers and celebrities.This wasn’t even on my radar screen. Something more to look forward to. Cool!
Thanks for the info!

[markman46]

No problem, the inspiration 4 flight was so cool and just the start

[SmokingJoe]

These are basically up and down missions, not true orbital missions lasting many days, weeks or months.

Um, you are wrong. They are orbital missions and they had an orbit higher than the ISS. And they are not up and down missions. That's Bezos.

[PIF]

By up and down missions, I meant they only orbit until they are ready to de-orbit. Perhaps awkward but not really much more than missions going higher than Bozo’s. They serve no specific orbital mission other than a brief sightseeing trip.

[SmokingJoe]

If at first you don't get killed, try and try again

You gotta be kidding. Not a single parson has been killed in ANY SpaceX flight.

[adorno]

You gotta be kidding. Not a single parson has been killed in ANY SpaceX flight.

How many flights have there been? There isn't a long track record to speak of.

Like it's said, if anything can go wrong, it will. And the more you take risks, eventually things will catch up to you.