Scott Poteet attends a Polaris Dawn mission overview briefing at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2024.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet has been along for the ride throughout Jared Isaacman’s pursuit of space ambitions.
Their friendship stems from experiences in the air: Poteet spent 20 years in the Air Force, racking up about 3,200 hours of jet flight experience. And Isaacman is a passionate pilot with thousands of hours of experience flying jets and experimental aircraft.
Poteet went to work for Isaacman at Draken International — a tactical fighter aircraft supplier and contractor for the US military — after meeting him at an air show.
That experiencelasted about five years, Poteet said, before Isaacman sold the company. And now, Poteet supports Issacman’s latest spaceflight endeavors — and he’s shocked to be doing so, he told CNN.
“I was not the best academic student growing up — grade school through high school,” Poteet said. “But I admired all the astronauts and the NASA programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo leading up to the shuttle era.”
But as a former operational test pilot, Poteet has some of the career chops that professional NASA astronauts do. And he said he fully supports the vision of Isaacman and SpaceX: A future in which humanity lives among the stars.
“I was a firm believer,” Poteet said.
Poteet said this mission shows what the SpaceX team can “accomplish in a very short few years (and) is a true testament to its professionalism.”
“I have absolutely zero reservations,” Poteet said about making this foray into space. “I have full faith and confidence that they’ve crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘I’ in preparation for our mission.”
