School Dropout To Billionaire: Meet Jared Isaacman, 1st Non-Professional Astronaut To Walk in Space

Jared Isaacman has become the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space. On September 15, he stepped out of the Polaris Dawn a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4. Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4 led the mission along with two SpaceX engineers and one retired Air Force pilot. The crew travelled higher than anyone could, since Nasa’s Apollo moon missions, with their Dragon spacecraft reaching a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers), surpassing both the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Isaacman's life is a perfect example of how persistence and big dreams can take you to places you never thought possible, literally into space. Once a high school dropout from New Jersey, Isaacman has since become a billionaire, a record-breaking pilot, and a space explorer. His story is a reminder that our beginnings don’t have to define our future.

A Dreamer with Big Plans

At just 16, Isaacman made a bold decision to leave school and start a business. With a $10,000 loan from his grandfather, he set up Shift4 Payments in the basement of his parents’ home. He didn’t had much, just a couple of computers, some phones, and the help of his dad and a close friend. But he surely had a vision.

Over time, his hard work paid off. His small startup eventually grew into a company worth $7.4 billion, with more than 2,000 employees across the country. "Back then, there’s no way I could have imagined the company becoming so big," Isaacman says, looking back. "Some of the best memories are from those early days, working late with a small team, learning from our mistakes, and celebrating every little success."

Taking Off- Literally

But Isaacman wasn’t content with just building a successful business. He had another dream: to fly. In 2009, he set a world record by flying a small jet around the world in under 62 hours. Three years later, he founded Draken International, a company that trains pilots for the U.S. Air Force which was sold for a hefty sum in 2020.

Even with these incredible achievements, Isaacman had one more goal to go to space since childhood, and in 2021, his dream came true. He led the first-ever all-civilian mission to space aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. It was a historic flight that set the record for the longest time civilians had spent in space.

Walking Among the Stars

Most recently, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis made history again. They stepped out of their spacecraft during the Polaris Dawn mission, becoming the first non-professional astronauts from a private company to perform a spacewalk. It was another huge moment in Isaacman’s extraordinary journey.

"I’ve been lucky in life," Isaacman says with humility. "It started with a teenage dream in my parents’ basement, and now I’ve been able to reach for the stars-literally," he said.