When he was a kindergartner, Jared Isaacman (’11), saw the 1980s movie “Space Camp.” Then he declared to his parents, “I want to be an astronaut.”
“I thought at that point all you had to do was go to Space Camp because there was a robot called Jinx that was going to send you up. They explained to me that was not how it works. And really the chances are not good.”
“I had maybe one of the best views of our planet that anyone has ever had. And it is gorgeous.”
Jared Isaacman (’11)
But it turned out that the chances for Isaacman were very good. And he has made the most of his luck with vision and determination.
Isaacman, who has flown as the commander of two history-making commercial space flights, completed his second spaceflight on Polaris Dawn in September 2024. It’s the first of three planned flights in the Polaris Program.
His journey started with entrepreneurship and the pursuit of aviation after his parents suggested he watch “Top Gun” as aviation seemed a more likely career path. While an entrepreneur, he went all-in on flight.
Isaacman built his first company in 1999 as a teenager in his parents’ basement. That was Shift4, a payment processing company that he founded and where he served as CEO for many years. In his 20s, he took flight lessons as an outlet from his work. In 2009, he broke the world record for circumnavigating the globe in an airplane within 62 hours while piloting a Cessna Citation CJ2. He got into aerobatics, leading an airshow team. In 2012, he founded Draken International, an aviation defense company in Lakeland, Florida, that provides air tactical training to the military. He sold his majority stake in the company in 2019.
While he was pursuing aviation full throttle, he studied for a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics at the Embry-Riddle Worldwide Campus, graduating in 2011.
In the next decade, he finally started to pursue his space exploration dreams. Isaacman led the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight. He and his three crewmates flew aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft capsule, launching Sept. 15, 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Fellow Embry-Riddle alumnus Chris Sembroski (’07) joined him on the mission, which raised more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
In 2024, as part of the Polaris Dawn mission, Isaacman commanded a history-making mission that reached the highest Earth orbit ever flown and traveled farther into space than any crewed mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. He conducted the first commercial spacewalk alongside Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, Mission Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Mission Specialist & Medical Officer Anna Menon. All four were on a mission that he called “a critical milestone on a far, far bigger adventure.”
The mission only grew his wonder at space travel and expanded his perspective on his home planet. “I had maybe one of the best views of our planet that anyone has ever had. And it is gorgeous.”
“It took so many people, an army of people to create and test new technology, and they’re doing it not for me or Sarah or my other two crew members, but for a really exciting future that many people can live in.
“I wanted to share that perspective. It does look perfect here from this far away. With the collective efforts of many, we can accomplish really great things, but that would only be one perspective. That wouldn’t be the reality that most people see every day. And I think it is important to acknowledge that it is a very imperfect world, and we know it, and we all have to contribute to making it better.”
“To the extent that you can, you need to try and leave the world a better place than you found it.”
Jared Isaacman (’11)
When asked what he’s taken away from his recent spaceflight, Isaacman is humble. “I’ve been incredibly lucky and just thrilled to be able to see so much amazing work happening around me … and contribute in a small way.”
Isaacman’s achievements are anything but small. In addition to founding two highly successful companies, he financed both Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn.
His commitment to philanthropic ventures is also remarkable and inspiring. “To the extent that you can,” he explains, “you need to try and leave the world a better place than you found it.”
A primary goal of Polaris Dawn was to test an advanced extravehicular spacesuit that may be the prototype for the interplanetary travel wardrobe of the future.
Included in that future are Isaacman’s two daughters — 10 and 8 — who haven’t quite wrapped their arms around the significance of the mission. According to Isaacman, they have yet to understand the magnitude of the history that Gillis and Menon have made as two women who have traveled further than any other woman in space. “They probably think it’s way more routine than it is, which is awesome, because as they grow up, it will be routine.”
‘We Don’t Have a Choice Not To Proceed’
While Isaacman spent considerable time talking about the overall impact of the mission, he also discussed the testing that prepared them for the grueling conditions in space. The SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn team spent over two and a half years on development training, the testing of equipment and on operations, including moving around in their new high-tech, advanced spacesuits.
Even the violin of Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis — who performed “Rey’s Theme” from the movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” — needed to undergo rigorous testing.
Even after all the preparation, Isaacman said, space can seem a dark and threatening place.
“It was very clear when there’s nothing between you and that environment but your visor, that everything around you and everywhere you hope to go in this galaxy, in our solar system, in the universe, is going to try and kill you. It will be very harsh. There’s no atmosphere, there’s radiation, there is micrometeoroid debris, different gravitational environments that we didn’t evolve to live in.
“But that doesn’t mean we should stop dead in our tracks. We have to keep going, just as the explorers did hundreds of years ago, and along the way, life will be better for humankind. So we don’t have a choice not to proceed. We just have to go with caution.”
Back to His Embry-Riddle Roots
Polaris Dawn launched to orbit aboard the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, and also on board was the Embry-Riddle-built LLAMAS multi-camera system, developed under the direction of Dr. Troy Henderson, director of the Space Technologies Lab and associate professor of Aerospace Engineering. LLAMAS — which stands for “Literally Looking At More Astronauts In Space” — captured video of crew operations during the expedition, and those images will be used to create virtual reality experiences.
Additionally, Dr. Amber Paul, assistant professor in Embry-Riddle’s Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology, and her Omics Lab for Health and Human Performance will process biospecimens collected from the crew to assess the influence of space missions on human health.
Isaacman was thrilled to work with his alma mater, particularly on the LLAMAS project, in which he was heavily involved.
“Especially [as a result of] my connection back to Embry-Riddle, having gotten to work on a project that would ultimately fly on our vehicle; get exposed to the vacuum of space; bring back data — it gets exciting. So, I was thrilled for it.”
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
In early 2025, Isaacman was nominated for the position of NASA Administrator, but after six months, the White House chose to look for other candidates. Isaacman says that the process was “thrilling,” and he’s grateful to the administration for being considered. “I have not flown my last mission — whatever form that may ultimately take,” he wrote on X. “But I remain incredibly optimistic that humanity’s greatest spacefaring days lie ahead.”
Isaacman is happy to support and inspire his fellow Eagles along the way.
“I’m just one of the folks that get the lucky seat,” he said after the Polaris Dawn mission. “But really, I’m just trying to draw attention to some of the real inspirations out there — the people behind the scenes that are making it happen. And you just want the next generation to look up at the stars and imagine what’s in the realm of possible now.
“We’re going into a whole new age right now where there’s going to be a lot of opportunities.”