Polaris Dawn crew: Who are the 4 people on SpaceX’s ambitious mission

It also plans to conduct the first commercial spacewalk, taking the risk of opening them entirely Crew Dragon spacecraft in the vacuum of space.

Here’s who’s aboard this daring and historic mission.

Jared Isaacman, mission commander

Jared Isaacman is the billionaire who finances the mission and serves as the commander. This isn’t the 41-year-old’s first rodeo.

In 2021, he funded and flew the first all-civilian spaceflight, called Inspiration4, and brought three people with him to try out Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

The name of that mission, Inspiration4, derives from Shift4, the payment processing company Isaacman founded at age 16 in his parents’ basement after dropping out of high school. He is still the CEO.

Compared to other space-traveling billionaires — like the flamboyant Richard Branson and champagne-swilling Jeff Bezos — Isaacman’s tone is much more serious.

To begin with, he is a relatively private person. He has repeatedly declined to say how much money he spent on his SpaceX missions.

He also has some technical qualifications for the commercial astronaut gig: He’s an accomplished pilot, reporting more than 7,000 flight hours. Isaacman’s portfolio of businesses also includes Draken International, a private aircraft supplier and pilot training company he founded in 2012 and sold to Blackstone in 2019. The sale, along with the publication of Shift4, will they made a billionaire.

The messaging around Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn focused heavily on raising funds for St. Mary’s Children’s Research Hospital. Jude, as well as on making technological advances in human spaceflight.

“We just knew it was a pretty big moment in history and it comes with a certain responsibility,” Isaacman told BI ahead of Inspiration4’s launch in 2021. He said the St. Jude was an effort to “take care of some of the problems we have here on Earth, so we earn the right to go and explore among the stars.”

Isaacman also approached NASA, offering to fund a Crew Dragon mission to boost the Hubble Space Telescope’s orbit and thereby extend its life, as it is currently expected to fall out of orbit in mid 2030s. NASA declined the offer for now.

Isaacman lives in New Jersey with his wife, Monica Isaacman, and their two daughters, according to the New York Post.

Sarah Gillis, mission specialist

As an engineer overseeing SpaceX’s astronaut training program, Sarah Gillis first met Isaacman when she was preparing him and his crewmates for the Inspiration4 flight.

“You spend a lot of your job pretending to be an astronaut and thinking what would they care,” Gillis, 30, said in an Aug. 19 briefing. “I can’t wait to test this in space and bring it back. knowledge for engineers”.

Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, Gillis was on track to become a violinist like her mother until her freshman year of high school, when she attended a guest lecture at the university by Joe Tanner, a former NASA astronaut and mechanical engineering professor. She told The Denver Post that she stayed to talk with Tanner, who became her mentor while pursuing aerospace engineering.

Gillis started with an internship at SpaceX in 2015 and quickly rose through the ranks of the company’s astronaut training program and mission control operations. She is still an accomplished violinist and an avid hiker.

Gillis’ husband, Lewis, is also a SpaceX engineer. He helped build the Dragon’s propulsion system.

“So I know exactly what goes into the testing and the design and the rigor behind absolutely everything that goes into the spacecraft,” Gillis said, adding that she is “very, very excited to fly my favorite ship, the Dragon.”

She serves as a mission specialist on Polaris Dawn, assigned to leave Dragon on Thursday to lead the first commercial spacewalk alongside Isaacman. It’s the first time he’s come into space.

Anna Menon, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer

Anna Menon has dreamed of going into space since she was a child.

“I grew up in Houston, another space city, was exposed to space on a field trip and experienced a day in the life of an astronaut and a flight controller in mission control,” Menon said at the briefing from August 19. “And I fell in love with the industry.”

Polaris Dawn is the 38-year-old’s first time in space. She is an engineer at SpaceX and serves as the mission specialist and medical officer for Polaris Dawn.

“I think working at SpaceX gives me a tremendous amount of competence to go into space,” Menon said.

Before joining SpaceX, Menon worked at NASA and helped oversee the operations of the International Space Station as a biomedical flight controller.

She’s not the only one in her family headed for space. Menon’s husband Anil is one of NASA’s new astronauts. The couple have two children, James and Grace.

During her trip to space, Anna plans to read a little. “I will be reading a children’s book I wrote, Kisses from Space, to both my children and some of the brave children at St. Jude,” she told People. The live story is part of the mission’s fundraising for the pediatric hospital, which treats childhood cancers and other illnesses.

Scott “Kidd” Poteet, mission pilot

Although he flew fighter jets for the US Air Force, Scott Poteet has never been in space. The 50-year-old mission pilot suffers from motion sickness but has been able to overcome it in his combat missions and performing aerobatic maneuvers with US Air Force Thunderbirds.

Poteet told Spectrum News that his path to becoming an astronaut was not typical, at least not by today’s standards. His grades were not the best in school and he has no background in engineering or science. However, Isaacman invited Poteet, who goes by the name “Kidd,” to pilot the Polaris Dawn.

“On a personal level, having flown fighter jets in the Air Force for 20 years, combat experience, operational test experience, leading many red flag exercises and combat weapons school, I can tell you without a doubt that these have were some of the most challenging. workout I’ve ever experienced,” Poteet spoke about his preparation for Polaris Dawn during the Aug. 19 briefing.

Poteet lives in Monument, Colorado with his wife and three children. At least one hopes to follow in his footsteps. “My 12-year-old son absolutely intends to go into space,” he recently told UNH magazine. “He thinks it’s going to be a regular thing in his lifetime.”