NASA | Les rêves de Jared Isaacman

When he was 16, Jared Isaacman convinced his parents to let him drop out of high school to start a technology company. A quarter of a century and several billion dollars later, he will become NASA's youngest big boss.

“I've been passionate about aviation and space since daycare,” Mr. Isaacman said in early December at the Spacepower conference in Orlando. “I thought I had a better chance of being struck by lightning than of becoming an astronaut. »

The founder of Shift4 Payments and Draken International was not struck by lightning. But he participated in two private space missions that he financed, Inspiration4 in 2021 and Polaris Dawn last fall, the achievement of which was the first spacewalk in history by a private company. It also finances the first manned mission of the mega-rocket Starship from SpaceX which will take off on an as yet unknown date.

Nothing suggested this breathtaking itinerary when he was bubbling with impatience at school. “My brothers and sisters are 10 to 15 years older than me,” he said in 2021 in a podcast series by American motivator TJ Hoisington. “They were starting their adult lives when I was a teenager. So raising your hand for the right to go to the bathroom seemed unfair. »

It was impossible to have an interview with Mr. Isaacman, despite multiple requests to his various press officers.

Around the world in 61 hours

Its success – with the internet business payments company Shift4 – has been dazzling. “I was so young that my dad would meet my clients,” he told Mr. Hoisington's podcast. From the age of 20, I saw them myself, but sometimes I had to have fake cards to enter the restaurants where the meetings took place. »

At 21, he celebrated not the right to drink alcohol, but the right to pilot a commercial airplane. At age 26, in 2009, he set a record, flying around the world in 61 hours in a Cessna Citation.

The following year, he created an acrobatic aviation team, Black Diamond, with which he still competes. He kept his nickname from the time, Rook, notably on X.

During this time, he also studied aeronautical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Florida. In recent years, he has given speeches at ERAU graduation ceremonies.

Aviation provided him with another business idea: Draken, a company that owns 150 military aircraft and organizes maneuvers for the air forces of the United States and several of its allies.

Donald Trump indicated in early December that Mr. Isaacman would be the next big boss of NASA. Marc Garneau, who was an astronaut and minister and led the Canadian Space Agency from 2001 to 2006, as well as Sean O'Keefe, who led NASA from 2001 to 2004 and now teaches at Syracuse University, praised his appointment.

Mr. O'Keefe agreed, assuring that there was “a lot of interest in the scientific and commercial space community in this nomination.”

“He always thinks of others”

Throughout this successful journey, Mr. Isaacman has raised hundreds of millions for philanthropic causes. Its two space missions, for example, generated nearly US$500 million for St. Jude Pediatric Hospital in Tennessee. He included in his 2021 Inspiration4 mission a St. Jude physician assistant who had cancer as a child, Hayley Arceneaux.

“Now I can tell my little patients that they can have any dream in life,” says M^me Arceneaux, who wrote a biography and two children's books based on his adventure. “Jared gave me an incredible opportunity. Before Inspiration4, a person with a prosthetic leg, because of my bone cancer, could never have dreamed of being an astronaut. »

M^me Arceneaux, who served as the mission's medical lead in addition to her role as St. Jude's space ambassador, praises Mr. Isaacman's “humility” and “generosity.” “He always thinks of others, remembers the names of all those who collaborate directly or indirectly on a mission and never lets himself be complimented without returning the favor. He truly wants the good of humanity. »

At ERAU’s convocation in early December, he pictured a bright future. “Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and, in doing so, improve life here on Earth. Space offers significant potential for breakthroughs in biotechnology, manufacturing and mining technologies, and even new sources of energy. Crowds of people will live and work in the space. »

Through it all, he had two children with his wife, Monica, whom he met in junior high school. They live in the New Jersey area, where they grew up.

See Jared Isaacman fly a MiG 29 over the launch pad of Starship before a test in March 2024

See Jared Isaacman at an air show in 2022