One Small Hop

Next month, tech entrepreneur, pilot, and (of course) billionaire Jared Isaacman will blast off to space on a privately commissioned SpaceX mission.

His luggage will be a tad unusual, though: Space.com reports that Isaacman is bringing 70 pounds of hops that, after returning home, will be brewed into beer by whatever brewery decides to buy them at auction. And because he’s such a good guy (what billionaire isn’t?), the whole thing’s for charity — admittedly a nice twist on the usual slew of PR stunts that have made their way into orbit.

Everything’s an Ad

Isaacman first announced his plan to donate the funds to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on Twitter last week.

Unfortunately, according to an update he posted on Thursday, a grand total of zero breweries have expressed interest in the auction — something that probably should have been worked out in advance when you’re a billionaire who’s buying tickets to space instead of just donating your money directly.

We mentioned other space PR stunts. Again, it’s nice that Isaacman planned to raise money for charity. But after beer, wine, cookies, coffee, and who knows what else have all been shipped into orbit for the purposes of, uh, well, we don’t know, it’s hard to find this inspiring (let alone all that original). Maybe if he found a way to deliver carbon offsets for the spaceflight he doesn’t need, and all the other unecessary ones, too? That’d be pretty cool. Until then: Billionaire space beer, drink it up.

READ MORE: Space beer, anyone? Hops flying on SpaceX’s private astronaut mission Inspiration4 will be auctioned for charity [Space.com]

More on space stunts: Brands Keep Sending Their Pointless Swag to the Space Station