Scott Poteet

Scott "Kidd" Poteet (born December 7, 1973) is an American retired pilot from the United States Air Force. He was the pilot of the Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, a privately funded human spaceflight operated by SpaceX for Jared Isaacman.

Scott Poteet
Poteet in 2010
Born	(1973-12-07) December 7, 1973 (age 51) Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.[1]
Education	University of New Hampshire (BS) University of Colorado Colorado Springs (MA)
Military career
Nickname(s)	"Kidd", "Martian Man"
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1998–2016
Rank	Lieutenant colonel
Combat operations	Northern Watch Southern Watch Joint Guardian Freedom's Sentinel Resolute Support
Space career
Commercial astronaut
Time in space	4 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes
Missions	Polaris Dawn

Early life

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Outdoor education at the University of New Hampshire and later attended the Air Command and Staff College and earned a Master's degree in counseling and leadership from University of Colorado Colorado Springs in a program jointly operated with the Air Force Academy.

Career

Scott Poteet is a retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel who served 18 years in a variety of roles including commanding officer of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, pilot in the USAF Thunderbirds (Position 4), test and evaluation pilot, and commercial pilot. Poteet has over 3,200 flight hours on the F-16, A-4, T-38, T-37, T-3 and Alpha Jet. He logged over 400 combat hours during Operations Northern Watch, Southern Watch, Joint Guardian, Freedom's Sentinel, and Resolute Support.^[2]

After retiring from the Air Force, Poteet worked as a director of business development at Draken International from 2016 to 2020 and then as the vice president of strategy at Shift4 from 2020 to 2022, under CEO Jared Isaacman. During his time at Shift4, Poteet also trained then served as the mission director of Inspiration4, the first all-civilian human spaceflight mission led by Isaacman as commander.

In 2022, Poteet was selected to serve as the spacecraft pilot of the Polaris Dawn mission, which flew in September 2024. During the flight Poteet was the backup to Isaacman, the mission commander, who successfully completed the first commercial spacewalk.^[3]

Personal life

Scott Poteet at 2010 Ironman World Championship

Poteet and his wife Kristen have two daughters and one son. He is a runner and triathlete, competing in 15 Ironman triathlons since 2000, including four Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.^[4]

Media coverage

He appears as a mission director in the 2021 docuseries Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space.