First Billionaire To Have a Private Spacewalk

American billionaire Jared Isaacman became the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space on Thursday. The 41-year-old funded the Polaris Dawn mission, which sent him and three others into space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Isaacman is estimated to be worth $1.9 billion (£1.46 billion). He founded Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company, in 1999 when he was just 16 years old.

His interest in flying began in 2004 when he took pilot lessons, and he later set a world record for flying around the world in a light jet.

During his first spacewalk, Isaacman said, “Back at home we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” After he returned, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis also went on a spacewalk.

This isn’t Isaacman’s first space mission. In 2021, he paid for and led the Inspiration4 mission, the first private, all-civilian team to orbit Earth.

 The crew launched from Florida on a SpaceX capsule and spent three days in space before safely landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Time magazine estimated that he paid $200 million (£153 million) to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for that mission.