Isaacman Will Be the Featured Speaker at Dinner Event on June 21 in Orlando, FL

Private astronaut and philanthropist Jared Isaacman will speak at the National Space Society International Space Development Conference® (ISDC®) at the June 21st dinner event. The ISDC will be held at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, from June 19-22. For more details see the conference website at isdc.nss.org. Isaacman will be accepting the NSS Wernher von Braun Memorial Award for the Polaris Dawn team, which he leads.

As a young man, Isaacman founded a payment processing company called Shift4 Payments. He grew the company and then founded Draken International, a provider of tactical fighter aircraft for military and defense industry clients. Isaacman is an accomplished pilot and is qualified on multiple military jet aircraft. In 2009 he set a new world record for circumnavigating the globe in a jet, clocking in at just under 62 hours, with proceeds donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation.

In September 2021 Isaacman flew into space as the commander of the Inspiration4 mission with SpaceX. The mission was dedicated to philanthropy with the proceeds—including $100 million of Isaacman’s own funds—donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He then organized and flew the Polaris Dawn mission, also with SpaceX, in September 2024. Polaris Dawn flew in the highest Earth orbit of any mission since the last Apollo flight in 1972 and featured the first spacewalk—a so-called “Stand-up EVA”— by private astronauts. The Polaris Dawn program has two more planned flights, potentially including an early crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship.

Isaacman will be joined by an impressive slate of space visionaries at the ISDC that includes NASA astronauts Chris Ferguson, Robert “Hoot” Gibson, Susan Kilrain, and private astronauts Dr. Sian Proctor and Dr. Robert Ferl, as well as techno-visionary Dr. Martine Rothblatt, former NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Jim Green, planetary scientist Dr. Pascal Lee, and NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Nicola Fox, Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik, Ad Astra magazine Editor-in-Chief Rod Pyle, and science fiction author Joe Haldeman. The full list of featured speakers can be found at isdc.nss.org/speakers.

The International Space Development Conference is one of the oldest and largest space conferences and invites people of all backgrounds to attend. It will be held at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, on June 19-22. See the ISDC website for more information on programming, special meals, and tours of various Florida space attractions. Tickets for the ISDC and the awards dinner are available at isdc.nss.org.

ABOUT THE WERNHER VON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD

The Wernher von Braun Memorial Award is the Society’s highest honor and is bestowed every two years to recognize excellence in management and leadership for a space-related project. Previous recipients include NASA’s George Mueller, Burt Rutan, ULA’s Tory Bruno, and SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell and Elon Musk.