Meet the SpaceX crew of Polaris Dawn: 4 brave astronauts on the most ambitious space mission in history.

They are planning to run the first site of the business, taking the risk of opening their entire site Crew Dragon spaceship to empty space.

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

Jared Isaacman, mission director

Jared Isaacman is a billionaire who runs the mission and serves as its director. This is not the first rodeo in 41 years.

In 2021, he funded and flew the first manned flight, called Inspiration4, and brought three people around the Earth in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

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

Compared to other space-walking billionaires — like the flamboyant Richard Branson and the champagne-swilling Jeff Bezos — Isaacman’s tone is even deeper.

When he started, he was a bit of a loner. He has repeatedly declined to say how much he spent on his activities with SpaceX.

He also has other technical credentials for the astronaut game: He is an accomplished pilot, logging more than 7,000 flight hours. Isaacman’s business portfolio also includes Draken International, a private jet supplier and flight training company he founded in 2012 and sold to Blackstone in 2019. The sale, along with taking Shift4 public, gave him make a billion.

The messaging around Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn is focused on raising money for St. Mary’s Children’s Research Hospital. Jude as well as making advances in the science of human flight.

“I just knew it was an important moment in history, and it comes with a certain responsibility,” Isaacman told BI ahead of the launch of Inspiration4 in 2021. He said the St. problems we have here on Earth, so we get the right to explore among the stars.”

Isaacman also approached NASA, offering to support the Crew Dragon project to boost the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope and thus extend its life, as it is currently expected to decommission from the mid-2030s. NASA has declined the proposal 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 in charge of SpaceX’s astronaut training program, Sarah Gillis got to know Isaacman while preparing him and his colleagues for the Inspiration4 flight.

Gillis, 30, said in an interview on August 19: “You pretend you’re an astronaut and think about what they’re going to care about.” knowledge to engineers.”

Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, Gillis aspired to become a violinist like her mother until her junior year of high school, when she attended a university guest lecture at Joe Tanner, a former NASA astronaut and professor of mechanical engineering. He told The Denver Post that he kept in touch with Tanner, who became his mentor as he pursued aeronautical engineering.

Gillis began an internship at SpaceX in 2015 and quickly rose through the astronaut training program and mission control operations. He remains an accomplished violinist and an avid hiker.

Gillis’ husband, Lewis, is also an engineer at SpaceX. He helped build the Dragon system.

“So I know exactly what goes into the testing and the design and the power behind everything in the airplane,” Gillis said, adding that he was “excited to fly in my favorite Dragon airplane.” .”

He works as a mission specialist on Polaris Dawn, assigned to take off from Dragon on Thursday to conduct the first commercial space mission near Isaacman. This is his first time in space.

Anna Menon, missionary and medical officer

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

“I grew up in Houston, another Space City, and I was exposed to space on a mission trip and experienced a day in the life of an astronaut and a flight commander in mission control,” Menon said during an interview with 19 August. “And I fell in love with this industry.”

Polaris Dawn is the first in 38 years in space. He is an engineer at SpaceX and works as a mission specialist and medical officer for Polaris Dawn.

“I think working at SpaceX gives me a lot of ability 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 director.

He’s not the only one in his family headed for space. Menon’s husband, Anil, is one of NASA’s astronauts. The couple has two children, James and Grace.

During her trip to space, Anna plans to read a little. “I’m going to read the children’s book I wrote, ‘Kisses from Space,’ to both of my children along with other brave children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,” she told People. The story time is part of a fundraising project for the children’s hospital, which treats childhood cancer and other diseases.

Scott “Kidd” Poteet, pilot

Although he has flown fighter jets for the US Air Force, Scott Poteet has never been to space. The 50-year-old crew pilot suffers from motion sickness, but has been able to overcome that in his combat duties and fly maneuvers with the US Air Force’s Thunderbirds.

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

“On a personal level, flying fighter jets in the Air Force for 20 years, combat experience, operational review experience, leading many red flag exercises, and combat weapons school, I can tell you without a doubt that this was some of the hardest training I’ve ever had.” Poteet talked about his training for Polaris Dawn during an interview on August 19.

Poteet lives in Monument, Colorado with his wife and three children. At least one has hope to follow in his footsteps. He recently told UNH Magazine: “My 12-year-old son absolutely plans to go into space. “He believes it will be a normal thing in his life.”