For billionaire Jared Isaacman, the house tourism period begins

Billionaire Jared Isaacman, who will command the first all-civilian mission to orbit, stands in front of a Falcon 9 rocket at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California

Jared Isaacman is not a professional astronaut, but by the end of the year the young billionaire at the helm of a space mission composed entirely of tourists will have shot around the earth several times.

The tech entrepreneur will fly into Earth orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first purely civilian mission, which he will command and pay for himself.

The mission, called Inspiration4, “is the first step in a world where anyone can travel between the stars,” said Isaacman with a huge grin as he explained the project to AFP in front of SpaceX’s headquarters in the Hawthorne suburb of Los Angeles.

The CEO of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, which he founded in his basement when he was 16, is an experienced pilot who is qualified and already owns one to fly military aircraft World record for going around the globe in a ray of light in less than 62 hours.

In 2012, he even founded his own company Draken International, which trains pilots for the US armed forces.

“I’ve always been a space and aviation enthusiast,” said the 37-year-old. “When I was in kindergarten, I remember looking at picture books from the Space Shuttle. I told my kindergarten teacher that one day I would go into space.”

If everything goes as planned, his childhood dream will come true in the final quarter of this year, according to SpaceX.

And he wants to share the magical journey.

Isaacman is accompanied by three other inexperienced astronauts on the multi-day journey – including a lucky winner of a drawing – aboard the same model of a kite spacecraft that brought four astronauts to the International Space Station in November 2020.

SpaceX CEO and Founder Elon Musk said that anyone who can ride a really tough roller coaster can handle riding in the kite pod

“Everyday People”

“Probably the most exciting part of this mission is that we’re opening up this crew selection process to everyday people,” said Isaacman.

“There are people walking around today who won’t know in 30 days that they’re being fitted out for a spacesuit,” he added.

Isaacman said the idea is to have a crew that reflects “the main pillars of the mission”: hope, generosity and prosperity.

The “Hope” seat goes to a health care worker who survived cancer as a child after receiving treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which specializes in childhood and pediatric cancer.

The second seat, “Generosity,” will be part of a fundraiser for the hospital, he said, with a name drawn randomly from online donors. Isaacman himself donates an additional $ 100 million to the St. Jude Organization.

The third seat, symbolizing “prosperity”, goes to an entrepreneur who can best explain “how his business will change the world”.

The competition is open to U.S. residents over the age of 18 but does not require any unusual physical or technical skills, he said.

The Spacex Falcon 9 will launch on January 24, 2021 in Cape Canaveral, Florida

Isaacman said that SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk had told him, “If you can ride a really, really tough roller coaster, you should be able to ride Dragon.”

The NASA astronaut selection process is so selective that “you have a better chance of being struck by lightning,” but that’s not the case here, Isaacman said.

Its mission is said to last several days, during which the space tourists orbit the globe every 90 minutes – but not only see the earth go by.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time working on experiments,” said Isaacman on behalf of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or other organizations.

At the end of the mission, the capsule will re-enter the earth’s atmosphere to land off the Florida coast.

Isaacman doesn’t rule out sending more tourists inside room: If the mission if successful, he said, “there will be a lot of people who will have the opportunity to go up between the stars and explore.”

SpaceX aims to launch a “purely civilian” journey into orbit

© 2021 AFP

Quote: The era of space tourism begins for billionaire Jared Isaacman (2021, February 3), accessed on February 3, 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-02-billionaire-jared-isaacman-space-tourism. html

This document is subject to copyright. Except for fair trade for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.