The billionaire behind first private spacewalk

American entrepreneur and billionaire Jared Isaacman became the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space on Thursday.

The 41-year-old bankrolled the Polaris Dawn mission that launched him and three others into space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship.

Worth an estimated $1.9bn (£1.46bn), Mr Isaacman made his fortune from payment processing company Shift4 Payments, which he founded in 1999 aged 16.

The businessman had long been passionate about flying, first taking pilot lessons in 2004 and later setting a world record for circumnavigating the world in a light jet.

Stepping out into space for his first time on Thursday, the businessman said: “Back at home we all have a lot of work to do.

“But from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world.”

SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis also did a spacewalk after Isaacman returned.

Ms Gillis, the violinist-turned-aerospace-engineer, is the Polaris Dawn’s mission specialist.

Polaris Dawn is not Mr Isaacman’s first space mission. In 2021, he bankrolled and led the first private, all-civilian team to ever orbit the Earth.

That crew – named Inspiration4 – left on a SpaceX capsule from Florida and spent three days in space before splashing down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean.

Time magazine estimated that Mr Isaacman paid $200m (£153m) to fellow billionaire Elon Musk for all four seats aboard the SpaceX craft.

“That was a heck of a ride for us,” Mr Isaacman radioed shortly after landing at the time. “We’re just getting started.”

Mr Isaacman was born in Union, New Jersey, where, from an early age, he wasn’t afraid to go against the grain and push boundaries.

At the age of 15, he dropped out of high school and later took a GED (a high-school equivalency exam), according to the Netflix docuseries Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space.

“I was a horrible student,” Mr Isaacman said in the series. “And I wasn’t, like, happy in school, either.”

A year later, he launched his successful company Shift4 Payments from his parents’ basement, according to a report by Forbes.

The company now handles payments for a third of restaurants and hotels in the US, including big names like Hilton, Four Seasons, KFC and Arby’s; and processes over $260bn (£199bn) annually, according to its website.

Mr Isaacman also founded Draken International in 2011, a defence firm that trains Air Force pilots and owns the world’s largest fleet of private military aircrafts.

In 2019, Mr Isaacman sold a majority stake in Draken to Blackstone, a Wall Street firm, for a nine-figure sum, Forbes reported, launching himself into billionaire status.

The magazine dubbed him a “thrill seeker” in a 2020 profile, reporting that for fun, Mr Isaacman “bullets the MiG faster than the speed of sound and climbs mountains to unwind from non-stop, intense 80-plus-hour weeks”.

He also set a world speed record in 2009 for flying around the globe.

In the docuseries, Mr Isaacman said: “I do believe you only get one crack at life.”

“To the extent you have the means to do so, you have this obligation to live life to the fullest,” he added. “You never know when it’s going to be your last day.”

Mr Isaacman is married, has two daughters and lives with his family in New Jersey.

He and the others on board the Polaris Dawn are expected to return on Saturday.