Inspiration4’s Jared Isaacman is making a major donation to the Space Force Museums

Inspiration4 astronaut and billionaire Jared Isaacman is giving the US Space Force Historical Foundation the largest private donation in the nonprofit’s 35-year history, funding the future detailed restoration of rare missile-related artifacts and other upgrades to the Brevard County museum.

“This is exciting for the museum, a big step forward to preserve the Cape’s rich history and provide it for many generations to come,” said Jamie Draper, director of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum.

“We’re really excited about this and eager to get to work on these restoration and display projects,” Draper said.

Foundation president Ray Sands declined to disclose the amount of Isaacman’s “amazing” donation. Isaacman is the founder and CEO of Shift4, a trade finance company that processes more than $260 billion in global transactions annually.

A jet pilot who co-founded the Black Diamond Jet Team, Isaacman funded and commanded the Inspiration4 mission — the first orbital spaceflight by all-civilian astronauts — which made history when it launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule in September 2021 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The three-day space flight generated more than $250 million for St. Mary’s Children’s Research Hospital. Jude – Isaacman has pledged at least $100 million of that amount. Looking ahead, Isaacman ordered Polaris Dawn, another SpaceX Falcon 9 launch that will propel a crew of four in the Dragon into orbit to perform the first commercial astronaut spacewalk.

The launch is tentatively scheduled for summer at the earliest. Isaacman will command the mission.

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“I am pleased to support the USSF’s mission to preserve and promote the rich heritage of space development, education and research,” Isaacman said in an email about his donation to the museum.

A spokesperson for Polaris Dawn said Isaacman did not have time for an interview because his schedule is “incredibly busy before launch.”

“He’s an innovator. He’s a pioneer. And he’s doing things like Alan Shepard and John Glenn and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — and all those amazing astronauts of the past who were willing to risk their lives to break down existing barriers,” Sands said.

Subroc, the ‘Big Shot Shroud’ to be rebuilt

The US Space Force Historical Foundation supports the construction, maintenance, and restoration of approximately 100 rockets, missiles, related hardware, and interior exhibits at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, the Sands Space History Center near Port Canaveral, and Hangar C, the former missile assembly building adjacent to the lighthouse. Cape Canaveral where Wernher von Braun supposedly had an office on the second floor.

Draper said Isaacman’s donation will restore and rebuild:

Subroc, a naval submarine-launched guided missile developed during the late 1950s, which was designed to destroy enemy submarines at long ranges.

“It was essentially a flying torpedo: a solid-fuel rocket engine, a nuclear depth charge. It’s just a wild concept and real Cold War technology,” Draper said.

Calling the Subroc a “rare specimen,” he said only a few others are known to exist.

“The cover of the great beast”. This nose cone-like housing carried large aluminized plastic balloon satellites atop a Thor high-altitude inflation missile during NASA’s Project Echo experimental flights in 1962 from Launch Complex 17.

Draper said the balloons were released and inflated 250 miles above the Earth’s surface, and technicians bounced radio signals from them as NASA’s first communications satellites.

“Very interesting. And we don’t know of any other Big Shot shroud left. This might be the last of its kind, and we’ve had it on display here since 1968,” he said.

ARCAS weather rocket launcher.

“Hundreds of these were launched from the Cape in the 1960s and ’70s. And what they did was — before a big space launch or maybe a missile test, something like that — they would launch a bunch of these ARCAS rockets to gather weather data in the upper atmosphere,” Draper said.

Museum officials believe their cannon-like ARCAS launcher is the only one of its kind in existence, he said.

What’s more, Sands said Isaacman’s donation will fund a fourth unpublished restoration project “that will shed light on the Cape’s fascinating untold historical story.”

Florida environment ‘inhospitable’ to artifacts

Draper said museum officials still have plenty of static outdoor exhibits at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum — exposing old metal artifacts to “one of the most inhospitable preservation environments in the world.”

“Bright sun. Intense heat. Intense humidity. Not just a salty ocean breeze, but a highly ionized salty ocean breeze, from what people are telling me about the corrosion,” Draper said.

“There are also exotic pests. There are tropical storms. All kinds of problems to contend with,” he said.

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Draper said a historic restoration contractor will analyze and disassemble the Subroc, Big Shot Shroud and ARCAS launcher, then remove active granular corrosion, replace damaged material, apply a zinc coating, repaint and reassemble for museum display inside Hangar C.

“The final product is something that looks fresh off the assembly line during the Cold War era while retaining as much historical material as possible,” he said.

The Sand Museum is considering future expansion

Sands said Isaacman’s donation will also add new space force explanatory exhibits at the Sands Space History Center and a “Women Pioneers in Aviation” exhibit at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum.

“And then we’ll also be able to use some of those funds to secure key, unique artifacts from private collections of individuals for the museum,” Sands said.

Formerly called the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Museum Foundation, Sands said the nonprofit relies on charitable donations and revenue from gift shops and receives no funding from the Department of Defense.

Future expansion of the Sands Space History Museum property is in the planning and due diligence process, he said. More details will be announced in the coming weeks.

More:Space oddities: NASA and space collectors come to the museum for rare, vintage memorabilia

A Space Florida study unveiled this month depicts a futuristic vision depicting a $2.1 billion expansion of the commercial space companies’ docks extending north of Port Canaveral’s Middle Turning Basin. If that ambitious plan becomes a reality, crews should build that dock just west of the Sands Space History Museum grounds, Sands said.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Sands said.

The Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, which includes the adjacent Launch Complex 26 and Launch Complex 5/6, and Hangar C are located behind the doors of the military installation. Entry is through certified tours.

The Sands Space History Center, located near the north side of Port Canaveral Canal at 100 Spaceport Way, just outside the south gate of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This museum offers free admission and is easily accessible to the general public.

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