A businessman who led the world’s first all-civilian space mission to orbit the earth and had been nominated to lead NASA by President Donald Trump has donated $15 million to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Jared Isaacman, who led the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions to space, announced the donation at the space center on Friday. It is his second significant donation to the center.

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 is 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.

The White House pulled his nomination to lead NASA in May, shortly after proposing historically large cuts to NASA, including to flagship systems related to the Artemis moon program that are managed from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

Administration spokeswoman Liz Huston told NBC News at the time, “it’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda.”

He was a close ally of Elon Musk, having twice purchased flights into space aboard the latter’s SpaceX rockets. Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination shortly after the president had a public falling out with Musk as well as revelations that Isaacman had previously donated to causes related to both Democrats and Republicans.

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.