Donald Trump has chosen billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to be the next administrator of NASA
Donald Trump has chosen a billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut to be the next director of NASA. The president-elect of the United States announced on social media Wednesday that Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments, has been nominated to lead NASA.
Jared Isaacman is best known to space enthusiasts for commanding and funding two groundbreaking private flights into Earth orbit aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Trump wrote in a post on X social network:
Jared will be responsible for leading NASA to discover and inspire, paving the way for breakthrough achievements in science, technology and space exploration. Jared’s passion for space, his experience in astronautics, and his commitment to pushing the boundaries of discovery, deciphering the world’s secrets, and achieving a new space economy make him well suited to lead NASA in a bold new era.
– Donald Trump
Isaacman then responded in a post on X: “I am honored to be nominated by President Trump to serve as the next NASA Administrator. “I’ve had the chance to see our amazing planet from space, and I’m thrilled that America is leading one of the most incredible adventures in human history.”
Isaacman, 41, is a veteran pilot who co-founded an acrojet team as well as Draken International, a Florida-based company that trains pilots for the U.S. military. He also has the experience of driving vehicles in space. In September 2021, the billionaire led the first fully private space flight, a four-person, three-day mission into near-Earth orbit.
Jared Isaacman then took charge of another space flight called Polaris Dawn in September this year. The crew of this mission was able to fly to the farthest point from Earth that humans have traveled to since the Apollo program, and also performed the first private spacewalk.
Isaacman plans to go to space again. Polaris Dawn was actually the first of three planned missions that will be carried out in the near future. According to program officials, the third flight of Polaris Dawn will mark the first manned mission of SpaceX’s Starship super rocket.
As Isaacman’s space flight experience shows, he is well acquainted with Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX. Musk is also expected to play a less official role in Trump’s future administration. He heads the “Ministry of Government Productivity”; An advisory board that aims to help reduce regulations and dismantle government bureaucracy.
Musk wants to send humans to Mars; A goal that Isaacman apparently wants to achieve, and if Congress approves, he will likely move toward it in his role as NASA administrator. In another post on X, he wrote:
I was born after the moon landing and my children were born after the last space shuttle launch. With President Trump’s support, I can promise you this: We will never lose our ability to travel to the stars, and we will never settle for second place. We will inspire your children and myself to look to the sky and dream of the possible. Americans will walk on the moon and Mars, and in doing so, we will improve life here on Earth.
– Jared Isaacman
