posted 06-17-2022 10:33 AM               

U.S. Space & Rocket receives $10 million donation for new skills training center

U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO Dr. Kimberly Robinson and Shift4 Founder and CEO Jared Isaacman today announced a $10 million gift for a new Inspiration4 Skills Training Center at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center to support Space Camp programs. The planned concept is a 40,000-square-foot, hanger-style building that will include space and aviation simulators, an indoor pool, a netted drone space, classrooms and a challenge course for training the next generation of astronauts, pilots and engineers.

This gift is the largest single donation in the Rocket Center’s history. It allows the Rocket Center to create a new state-of-the-art facility to bring together many of Space Camp and Aviation Challenges’ immersive, scenario-themed activities under one roof and update the Space Camp program that was founded in 1982 and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week.

The Rocket Center is in the final site selection for the Inspiration4 Skills Training Center along with an architectural firm for the design. Once operational, this new facility will extend water and other weather-dependent outdoor activities year-round and enable Space Camp to increase the number of trainees that can attend each year outside the summer season.

A highlight of the new facility will be the display of an L-39 Black Diamond plane Isaacman is also donating to the Rocket Center.

Jared Isaacman is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, accomplished civilian pilot and commercial astronaut who attended Aviation Challenge as a 12-year-old. Isaacman holds several world records and has flown in more than 100 air shows. In September 2021, he commanded Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit, spending three days aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Other Inspiration4 crew members include: Chris Sembroski, mission specialist, senior analytics engineer for Lockheed Martin and a former Space Camp counselor; Hayley Arceneaux, the crew’s medical officer and a physician’s assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; and Dr. Sian Proctor, the mission pilot and a geoscience professor.

The Inspiration4 mission raised more than $250 million for St. Jude, the Memphis-based pediatric cancer research hospital that does not charge the families of children for their treatment.

About U.S. Space & Rocket Center

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is home to Space Camp, Space Camp Robotics, Aviation Challenge and U.S. Cyber Camp as well as the Apollo 16 capsule, the National Historic Landmark Saturn V rocket, the INTUITIVE Planetarium and world-class traveling exhibits. USSRC is the Official Visitor Center for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and a showcase for national defense technologies developed at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal.

posted 07-11-2025 01:29 PM               

Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn Astronaut Jared Isaacman to make major donation to U.S. Space & Rocket Center

Jared Isaacman, astronaut and leader of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions to space, is making a second significant donation to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for its Space Camp programs. Isaacman announceed a gift of $15 million for the Inspiration4 Skills Training Complex, currently under construction, and seed money for a fourth dormitory for Space Camp students.

Isaacman is the founder and Executive Chairman of Shift4 and co-founder of Draken International, a defense and aerospace company. He attended the Rocket Center's Aviation Challenge program when he was 12, an experience he credits with furthering his interest in becoming a pilot. In 2022, he made a $10 million donation to begin the Inspiration4 project, which is named for the world's first all-civilian mission to orbit. The Inspiration4 three-day mission flew in September 2021.

The current donation will fund the training complex's mission operations for Space Camp, and activities for Space Camp Robotics and U.S. Cyber Camp students. These activities, named for the five-day Polaris Dawn mission that took place in September 2024, Isaacman's second space mission, include:

• Simulated space missions to Mars and the Moon
  
• A realistic space station mission including all onboard operations
  
• A Mission Control Center
  
• An AI-powered mission support specialist
  
• A full-motion interactive Mars and lunar rover
  
• Futuristic spacewalks
  
• Science laboratories, robotics, 3-D printing systems, and holographic displays visualizing planetary environments, spacecraft systems, and mission data.
  
• Critical thinking and problem-solving scenarios

In addition to the mission operations area, the 50,000-square-foot training complex includes a two-story ropes course and an aviation wing where Aviation Challenge campers will train with state-of-the art night vision simulations, experience a virtual reality parachute landing, and explore flight dynamics through a spatial disorientation simulator.

"The Inspiration4 Skills Training Complex and the Polaris Dawn mission activities will transform Space Camp," Robin Soprano, Vice President of Space Camp, said. "Through this extraordinary investment, we are building cutting-edge experiences to take our programs and our students into the future."

The Inspiration4 complex is scheduled to open for the 2026 summer camp season. Further fundraising will be needed before construction on the dormitory begins.