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The last time Jared Isaacman went to space<\/a>, he chose to go up with a crew of three people, who had no prior spaceflight experience. This time, the founder of payment services company Shift4 is taking an even bigger risk.<\/p>\n Isaacman will help fund and join the Polaris Dawn flight from SpaceX<\/a>, which will take the crew higher than anyone has gone since the 1970s, entering the Van Allen radiation belts 870 miles above the earth (and about 185 miles higher<\/a> than the International Space Station). That same flight will see the billionaire and other crew members take part in a spacewalk, connected to the spacecraft with only a tether keeping him attached and a hose feeding him oxygen. They will be the first private citizens to do a spacewalk in history.<\/p>\n That journey will be made in a new type of spacesuit (technically called an Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) suit), which SpaceX designed and developed in just 2.5 years.<\/p>\n SpaceX<\/a> is targeting an Aug. 26 launch date for the mission, which is scheduled to last five days. Joining Isaacman<\/a>, who will command the mission, are pilot Scott \u201cKidd\u201d Poteet, Isaacman\u2019s friend and a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, along with SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom will act as mission specialists.<\/p>\n This is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program, all of which Isaacman will command and help fund. The spacewalk is the highlight of this journey, however.<\/p>\n \u201cBuilding a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits; the development of this suit and the execution of the EVA will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions,\u201d SpaceX said on the mission\u2019s Webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>High-level insights for high-powered executives. Subscribe to the CEO Daily newsletter for free today. Subscribe now<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n