The past nine months have been a whirlwind for an Edmonton man.
In January, Zachary Aubert, 25, launched a passion project — a space-themed YouTube channel called “The Launch Pad.”
For his first episode he landed U.S. billionaire entrepreneur and pilot Jared Isaacman.
“This is something me — as a kid and teenager — that I dreamt of and never thought would happen, but from one random email ended up happening,” Aubert said.
Isaacman is the commander of the SpaceX flight dubbed Inspiration4. It’s the first all-civilian mission to space.
“One of the things they did for everyone that applied for the Prosperity seat was actually invite them to come up to the launch, and I just thought that’s such an amazing opportunity,” Aubert said.
Since the interview with Isaacman, the two have kept in touch. In March, Aubert asked if he could come experience the launch in person too and document the historic moment.
In August he got a response.
“At about three in the morning he said yes,” Aubert explained.
“A couple of weeks ago the email actually came through from SpaceX, saying we need your information to get you badged on to the government base and we’ll go from there.”
The crew dragon spacecraft is scheduled to take off on Sept. 15. Aubert will arrive at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday and stay for 10 days.
“Just grasping the fact that we are going to be there for that first civilian flight. It’s not just a cargo mission or normal crewed one. It’s the first — there will never be another first,” he said.