EASTON, Pa. – A local billionaire from Easton – yes, Easton – is chartering the first all-civilian flight into space with Space X and wants you to go with him.
Jared Isaacman owns Shift4 Payments in Allentown, a payment processing company.
“True story. I told my kindergarten teacher that one day I would go to space,” said Isaacman.
An avid and experienced pilot, Isaacman moved the business from downtown New Jersey in the early 2000s to be closer to the LVIA.
“It started to become my meeting place from an aviation point of view. Selfishly, I chose West. Let’s get closer to the airport,” he said.
The mission is called “Inspiration4.” He is using it to raise funds and donate an impressive $ 200 million to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, $ 100 million of which will come from his own money.
“You cannot make all the great strides in space and try to explore new worlds, without trying to conquer some of the real problems that we have here on Earth today,” said Isaacman.
He will not say how much he is paying for the mission. However, another private mission reported recently is costing $ 55 million per head.
One of the chairs already goes to a hospital nurse, still unknown.
“She is a childhood cancer survivor, she was treated and cured in St. Jude and is now a health worker in St. Jude helping children in the struggle,” said Isaacman.
The third slot will be drawn for a company that uses Shift4 Payments. The latter will be raffled off to anyone making a donation to St. Jude’s in February.
“Very few people were lucky enough to go into space, so we have to make it accessible and allow people to explore among the stars,” said Isaacman.
There will be an announcement about the next mission during Sunday’s Super Bowl. You can find out more at inspiration4.com.