A U.S. billionaire who made a fortune in tech and fighter jets is buying an entire SpaceX flight and plans to take three “everyday” people with him to circle the globe this year according to CBC news.
Jared Isaacman announced on Monday that he aims to use the private trip to raise $200 million US for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., half coming from his own pocket.
It is said that a female health-care worker for St. Jude already has been selected for the mission. Anyone donating to St. Jude in February will be entered into a random drawing for seat No. 3. The fourth seat will go to a business owner who uses Shift4 Payments, Isaacman’s credit-card processing company in Allentown, Pa.
“I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit,” Isaacman, who turns 38 next week, told The Associated Press.
“I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way.”
Isaacman would not divulge how much he’s paying SpaceX, except to say that the anticipated donation to St. Jude “vastly exceeds the cost of the mission.”
While a former NASA astronaut will accompany the three businessmen, Isaacman will serve as his own spacecraft commander. The appeal, he said, is learning all about SpaceX’s Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. The capsules are designed to fly autonomously, but a pilot can override the system in an emergency.
A “space geek” since kindergarten, Isaacman dropped out of high school when he was 16, got a GED certificate and started a business in his parents’ basement that became the genesis for Shift4. He set a speed record flying around the world in 2009 while raising money for the Make-A-Wish program, and later established Draken International, the world’s largest private fleet of fighter jets.
Isaacman’s $100 million US commitment to St. Jude in Memphis is the largest-ever by a single individual and one of the largest overall.
“We’re pinching ourselves every single day,” said Rick Shadyac, president of St. Jude’s fundraising organization.
Besides SpaceX training, Isaacman intends to take his crew on a mountain expedition to mimic his most uncomfortable experience so far – tenting on the side of a mountain in bitter winter conditions.
“We’re all going to get to know each other … really well before launch,” he said.
He’s acutely aware of the need for things to go well.
“If something does go wrong, it will set back every other person’s ambition to go and become a commercial astronaut,” he told the AP over the weekend from his home in Easton, Pa.
