Today the billionaire-funded SpaceX mission, Polaris Dawn, carried its crew to an altitude 870 miles (1,400 km) above Earth – the highest any human has been since NASA’s Apollo missions.
Onboard are the billionaire Jared Issacman, former airforce commander Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
Tomorrow at 07:23 BST (02:23 ET), Issacman and the crew will face dangerous radiation and life-threatening pressure changes as they embark on the first-ever spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.
Apart from Isaacman, none of the all-civilian crew attempting this dangerous mission have any experience in space.
So, as these four untested astronauts prepare to make spaceflight history, MailOnline looks at who is taking part in this risky mission.
The Polaris Dawn crew are (from left to right) mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, mission pilot Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, mission commander Jared Isaacman, and mission specialist Sarah Gillis
This morning, the Polaris Dawn mission reached its highest point as the Dragon spacecraft climbed 1,400 km (870 miles) above Earth – the highest any human has been since NASA’s Apollo missions.
Jared Isaacman – mission commander
The billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, is most well known as the founder and CEO of the American payment processing company Shift4.
Isaacman founded the company in 1999 out of his parent’s basement when he was just 16 years old.
After dropping out of high school to work as a cybersecurity consultant, Isaacman used a $10,000 loan from his grandad to convince a bank to certify him to sell credit card terminals.
That business ballooned and now handles transactions for a third of America’s restaurants and hotels – processing more than $200 billion in payments every year.
In 2004, Isaacman was burned out by the long hours and intense stresses of running his company and began to spend more time on his hobby of flying planes.
In 2009, Isaacman smashed the previous speed record for round the world flight in a light jet by travelling to and from Morristown, New Jersey in 61 hours and 51 minutes – 21 hours shorter than the previous record.
With a world record under his belt, the FAA granted Isaacman an ‘Experimental Type’ ranking which let him fly fighter jets normally reserved for the military.
However, it was in 2012 that he realised he could turn his unconventional hobby into a business.
Alongside Sean Gustafson, a former member of the Thunderbirds Air Force stunt, Isaacman began buying up dozens of fighter jets from countries all around the world.
Eventually, Isaacman and Gustafson had assembled 100 fighter jets – the largest privately owned fleet of military aircraft in the world – and formed a company, Draken International.
The firm uses the planes to provide outsourced fighter pilot training to the US Air Force – a business model that has proved to be wildly profitable.
In 2019, Isaacman made himself a billionaire by selling a majority stake in Draken to the Wall Street firm Blackrock, holding on to only a small share and a Soviet-era MiG fighter jet.
Jared Isaacman (pictured) is the founder and CEO of Shift4, one of America’s biggest payment processing companies. Isaacman founded the company out of his parents’ basement when he was just 16 years old
Isaacman is a trained pilot with a licence to fly fighter jets. He used this experience to found a company called Draken International which provided training to the US Air Force
Even after selling his majority stake in Draken Internation, Isaacman still owns a MiG fighter jet which he flew as part of a display team called the Black Diamond Jet Team. Pictured: Isaacman flies in his MiG while preparing for the Polaris Dawn mission
While still running his payment firm Shift4, Isaacman then began to pursue ways of getting himself into space.
In 2021, he approached Elon Musk with the idea of purchasing an entire passenger flight from SpaceX which could take himself and three other passengers into orbit.
This culminated in the Inspiration4 mission, the first orbital spaceflight with an entirely civilian crew.
On board a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship, Isaacman and the crew reached an orbital altitude of 364 miles (585 km).
In 2021, Isaacman approached Elon Musk with the offer of funding a full civilian orbital mission. This became the Inspiration4 mission. Pictured: Isaacman poses with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
Apparently very happy with his experience, Isaacman subsequently commissioned three more flights from SpaceX including the Polaris Dawn mission.
However, the Polaris Dawn spacewalk will be the most risky moment.
Experts warn that during their 15 minutes outside the spacecraft, the crew will run the risk of encountering decompression sickness, radiation poisoning, and suffocation.
While the crew have undergone extensive training, that is also a concern that the untested crew may throw up due to motion sickness during the flight.
Spaceflight safety expert Tommaso Sgobba told MailOnline: ‘Now, if you vomit while you are inside the spacesuit, that is the end of your story – your life story. You get suffocated.’
After Polaris Dawn, Isaacman’s next flight will be another trip aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The final of the funded flights would be the first crewed mission aboard SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft which NASA intends to use for landing astronauts on the moon in 2026.
During the Inspiration4 mission, Isaacman (second from left) flew into orbit with a crew of three other non-professional astronauts
Isaacman has commissioned three flights from SpaceX of which the Polaris Dawn mission is the first. Pictured: Isaacman wears the SpaceX extravehicular activity suit
Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet – mission pilot
Behind the controls of the Dragon spacecraft for Polaris Dawn will be former Air Force commander Scott Poteet, 50, who goes by his callsign ‘Kidd’.
Poteet has a degree in outdoor education from the University of New Hampshire and spent nearly 20 years with the as a US Air Force.
He logged more than 3,200 hours of flight time and has flown missions over the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq.
But it was during his time in the Thunderbirds flight display group that he first met Jared Isaacman.
In 2016, Poteet left the Air Force and joined Isaacman’s fighter training company Draken International as director of business development.
Using his military contacts, Poteet led the development of a $300 million (£229m) contract to provide training for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.
Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet will be Mission Pilot on Polaris Dawn, he is a long-time friend and business partner of Jared Isaacman
Poteet is a retired Air Force commander with over 20 years of military experience. Pictured: Poteet poses with his FA-16 jet during his time as a member of the Thunderbird Air Force display team
Poteet first met Isaacman while flying in the Thunderbirds display team. He then went on to work for Issacman at both Daken International, Shift4, and as mission director for Inspiration4. Pictured: Poteet prepares to enter a fighter jet while preparing for Inspiration4
Jared Isaacman, his older brother Michael Isaacman, former colleague Sean Gustafson, and Scott Poteet (left to right) embark on an expedition to climb Mt Vinson in Antarctica in January 2020
In his four years at the company, Poteet secured over $350 million (£268m) in contracts for Isaacman’s company.
Since Isaacman sold Draken, Poteet has followed him through various projects – joining Shift4 as VP of strategy in 2020 and serving as mission director for Inspiration4 until 2022.
He and Isaacman have also embarked on various mountaineering expeditions together, culminating in an attempt to summit Mount Vinson in Antarctica in 2020.
In his personal life, he and his wife Kristen have two daughters and one son.
Poteet is also a keen triathlete and has completed 15 Ironman races since 2000 including four Ironman World Championships.
Scott Poteet and his wife Kristen (pictured) have two daughters and one son
Sarah Gillis – mission specialist
Also joining the Polaris Dawn mission will be two SpaceX employees including the company’s lead space operations engineer Sarah Gillis, 30.
Described as a ‘classical violinist turned space explorer’ Gillis may not have had the most conventional path to becoming an astronaut.
Trained from the age of two by her mother (a professional concert violinist), the young Gillis had little interest in space growing up.
It was only when a high school mentor, former NASA astronaut Joe Tanner, encouraged her to pursue a degree in aerospace that she considered other careers.
Apparently still somewhat torn between the arts and sciences, Gillis attended the University of Colorado, Boulder to study engineering and dance.
SpaceX lead space operations engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, will join Polaris Dawn as Mission Specialist
Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillson (pictured) first met while Gilson prepared Isaacman for the Inspiration4 mission
However, in 2015, Gillis joined SpaceX as an intern and has been working for the company ever since.
During that time she supported real-time operations for Dragon’s cargo resupply missions to and from the International Space Station and as a crew communicator for Dragon’s human spaceflight missions.
Her role means she is responsible for overseeing the company’s astronaut training programme and has even prepared NASA astronauts for the prior missions.
It was in this role that she first met Jared Isaacman as he was preparing for the Inspiration4 mission.
Not only did Gillis oversee months of Isaacman’s training but she was also the voice for mission control for the flight.
Gillson originally trained as a classical violinist before studying engineering and beginning work for SpaceX. Pictured: Gillson prepares for freefall skydive training
Speaking in the Netflix documentary Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, Gillis said she had to wear ‘two hats’ to be successful as an operations engineer.
‘One is the operational hat, where you need to understand exactly what actions you need to take to keep them safe.
‘On the other aspect, I care very deeply about every single one of these people now.’
As Isaacman and the Inspiration4 crew prepared to launch, she told him ‘It has been an absolute honour to prepare you for this historic flight’.
Outside of work, Gillis is an avid climber and hiker and says that her favourite thing is ‘a cup of hot coffee while camping in the wilderness’.
Jared Isaacman (second from left) and Sarah Gillson (right) first met while Gilson prepared Isaacman for the Inspiration4 mission
Anna Menon – mission specialist and medical officer
The final member of the Polaris Dawn Crew is Anna Menon, 38, also a lead space operations engineer for SpaceX.
As medical officer Menon will be responsible for ensuring the crew’s well-being as well as overseeing the biomedical experiments planned for the trip.
In a video posted to Instagram, she says that her inspiration to become an astronaut was a school trip to a NASA centre she took at the age of nine.
Menon received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Spanish from Texas Christian University before undertaking a Master’s in biomedical engineering from Duke University.
In 2011, Menon joined NASA as an office intern and after just two years worked her way up to become biomedical flight controller for the ISS.
Anna Menon, 38, will join Polaris Dawn as mission secialist and medical officer. She previously worked for NASA as biomedical flight controller for the ISS before joining SpaceX to become lead operations engineer
Anna Menon is also the author of a children’s book ‘Kisses from Space’ which she plans to livestream from orbit to her two children and children at the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Mrs Menon is married to Anil Menon (centre left) who is a member of NASA’s astronaut corps. They have two children James (left), 6, and Grace, 3 (right)
After almost eight years at the space agency, she then joined SpaceX and became lead space operations engineer in 2019.
However, Menon has not only used her expertise in the realm of space travel.
In 2015, immediately after the earthquake in Nepal, she joined non-profits to help recover water and sanitation in affected regions.
Menon is also the author of a children’s book called ‘Kisses from Space’ which was published earlier this year.
While in orbit, Menon says that she will livestream a reading of the book to her two children James, 6, and Grace, 3 as well as the children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Her husband, Anil Menon, is also an astronaut and is SpaceX’s first flight surgeon and a member of NASA’s astronaut corps.
