EASTON, Pa. – A local billionaire from Easton – yes, Easton – is chartering the first fully civilian flight to space with Space X and he 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,” Isaacman said.
An avid and experienced pilot, Isaacman relocated the company from Central New Jersey in the early 2000s to be closer to the LVIA.
“That started to become my stomping ground from an aviation perspective. Selfishly I chose West. Let’s get closer to the airport,” he said.
The mission is called “Inspiration4.” He uses it to raise money and donate as much as $ 200 million to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, of which $ 100 million is from his own money.
“You can’t take all the big steps in space and try to explore new worlds without trying to overcome some of the real problems we have here on Earth,” Isaacman said.
He will not say how much he pays for the mission. However, another recently reported private mission costs $ 55 million per person.
One of the chairs is already going to a nurse from the hospital, who is still unknown.
“She had childhood cancer, was treated and cured in St. Jude and is now a health worker in St. Jude helping children in the fight,” said Isaacman.
The third seat will be raffled for a company that uses Shift4 Payments. The latter will be raffled to anyone who makes a donation to St. Jude’s in February.
“Very few people have been lucky enough to go to space and so we need to make it accessible and let people go to explore among the stars,” Isaacman said.
During Sunday’s Super Bowl, there will be an ad about the upcoming mission. You can find more information at inspiration4.com.