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 careful restoration of rare rocket-related artifacts and other museum upgrades in Brevard County.
“This is exciting for the museum, a major step forward in preserving the Cape’s rich history and offering it to many future generations,” said Jamie Draper, director of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum.
“We are very excited about this and eager to get started on these restorations and exhibition projects,” Draper said.
Foundation chairman Ray Sands declined to disclose the amount of Isaacman’s “incredible” donation. Isaacman is the founder and CEO of Shift4, a trade finance company that processes more than $260 billion in global transactions annually.
Isaacman, a fighter pilot and co-founder of the Black Diamond Jet Team, funded and commanded the Inspiration4 mission – the first all-civilian astronaut orbital spaceflight – which made history by launching in a SpaceX Dragon capsule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The three-day space flight raised more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Isaacman promised at least $100 million of that amount. Looking ahead, Isaacman has deployed Polaris Dawn, a new SpaceX Falcon 9 launch that will carry a crew of four into orbit in a Dragon to perform the first-ever commercial spacewalk for astronauts.
The launch is tentatively scheduled for no earlier than the summer. Isaacman will lead the mission.
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“I am pleased to support the USSF’s mission to preserve and promote its rich heritage of space development, education and exploration,” Isaacman said in an email about his museum donation.
A spokesperson for Polaris Dawn said Isaacman did not have time for an interview because his schedule is “incredibly tight leading up to 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 great astronauts of the past who were willing to risk their lives to break down existing barriers,” said Sand.
Subroc, ‘Big Shot Shroud’ is being rebuilt
The U.S. Space Force Historical Foundation supports the construction, maintenance and restoration of approximately 100 rockets, rockets, related hardware and indoor exhibits at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, the Sands Space History Center near Port Canaveral, and Hangar C, a former rocket assembly building next to it. to the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, where Wernher von Braun reportedly had a second-floor office.
Draper said Isaacman’s donation will restore and rebuild:
- A Subroc, a Navy submarine-launched guided missile developed in the late 1950s and designed to destroy enemy submarines at long range.
“It was essentially a flying torpedo: a solid rocket engine, a nuclear depth charge. It’s just a wild concept and real Cold War technology,” Draper said.
He called the Subroc “a rare specimen” and said only a few others are known.
- A ‘Big Shot Shroud’. This nose cone-like housing carried large aluminized plastic balloon satellites atop Thor rockets for high-altitude inflation during NASA’s 1962 Project Echo experimental flights from Launch Complex 17.
Draper said the balloons were ejected and inflated 250 miles above the Earth’s surface, and engineers bounced radio signals off them like NASA’s first communications satellites.
“Very interesting. And we’re not aware of any other Big Shot Shrouds in existence. This could be the last of its kind, and we’ve had it on display here since 1968,” he said.
- An ARCAS weather missile launcher.
‘Hundreds of these were launched from the Cape in the 1960s and 1970s. And what they did is – before a big space launch or maybe a rocket test launch, something along those lines – they would launch dozens of these ARCAS rockets for weather data in the upper atmospheric layers,” Draper said.
Museum officials believe their cannon-like ARCAS launch vehicle is the only one of its kind left in existence, he said.
In addition, Sands said Isaacman’s donation will fund a fourth, undisclosed restoration project “that will illuminate a fascinating, untold historical Cape story.”
Florida environment ‘inhospitable’ for artifacts
Draper said museum officials still have quite a few outdoor static exhibits on the grounds of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, exposing the vintage metal artifacts to “one of the most inhospitable preservation environments in the world.”
“The intense sun. The intense heat. Intense humidity. Not just a salty sea breeze, but a heavily ionized salty sea breeze, from what corrosion people tell me,” Draper said.
“There are also exotic pests. There are tropical storms. There are all kinds of problems you can face,” he said.
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Draper said a historic restoration contractor will analyze and disassemble the Subroc, Big Shot Shroud and ARCAS launch vehicle, then remove active grain corrosion, replace damaged material, apply a zinc coating, repaint and reassemble for museum display in Hangar C.
“The end product is something that looks new coming off the assembly line during the Cold War, while preserving as much historical material as possible,” he said.
Sands museum is looking at future expansion
Sands said Isaacman’s donation will also add new Space Force explanatory displays at the Sands Space History Center and a “Women Pioneers in Aerospace” exhibit at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum.
“And then we will also be able to use some of these funds to secure important, 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 gift shop proceeds and receives no Department of Defense funding.
Future expansion of the Sands Space History Museum site is part of the planning and due diligence process, he said. More details will be released in the coming weeks.
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A Space Florida study unveiled this month shows a futuristic vision that shows a $2.1 billion yard expansion for commercial space companies stretching north from the Middle Turning Basin at Port Canaveral. If that ambitious plan comes to fruition, crews will need to build that dock just west of the Sands Space History Museum grounds, Sands said.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Sands said.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, which includes the adjacent Launch Complex 26 and Launch Complex 5/6, and Hangar C are located behind the gates of the military installation. Access is via certified guided tours.
The Sands Space History Center, located near the north end of the Port Canaveral Canal at 100 Spaceport Way, just outside the south gate of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This museum is free and easily accessible to the general public.
Visit floridatoday.com/space for the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Rick Neale is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale atRneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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