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Meet Jared Isaacman, the billionaire attempting the first private space walk as part of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission

September 11, 20240
Isaacman chose to drop out of high school at 15.

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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 lives with his wife and two daughters in New Jersey.

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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 at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.

SpaceX/Business Wire via AP Photo

Isaacman hit billionaire status in 2020 after selling Draken International and taking Shift4 public. His net worth is estimated at $1.8 billion, according to Forbes.

He always had a passion for flying planes.
Isaacman and his family are involved in a number of philanthropic causes.

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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.
The Crew of the next SpaceX private astronaut flight called Polaris Dawn.

The Washington Post/Getty Images

Early Tuesday, Isaacman and three other crew members successfully took off on their way into orbit for the first-ever privately funded space walk.

The space walk, scheduled for Thursday, will feature SpaceX’s new EVA suits.

Polaris Dawn lifted off from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s KSC, which also saw the launches of other historic missions, such as the Apollo 11 moon landing.

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.