Trump wants SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman as next NASA boss

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Jared Isaacman, a notable SpaceX customer, as head of NASA.

You may remember Isaacman as the billionaire who made the first private spacewalk last September as part of the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission. That said, he's a professional flier and holds the speed record for the fastest in-atmosphere trip around the planet.

It seems great news for SpaceX, which supplies NASA with rockets and capsules and is run by Elon Musk – the oligarch currently buddies with Trump and happily offering advice on how the US government should be run.

"I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration," Trump said on his personal social network. "Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration."

Isaacman made his fortune as the founder and CEO of payment processor Shift4, which he established at the tender age of 16. He later founded Draken International, which uses tactical jets to provide adversary air training for military pilots.

He does have space experience, having purchased four tickets for an orbital trip in SpaceX's Dragon capsule back in 2022, then raffling off three of them. Wearing a SpaceX-designed lightweight spacesuit, Isaacman was the first person to take a brief step outside the capsule. The flight was one of three planned with SpaceX as part of Isaacman's Polaris Program to advance getting humans into space using Musk's rockets.

Isaacman before his last SpaceX mission. Click to enlarge

"On my last mission to space, my crew and I traveled farther from Earth than anyone in over half a century. I can confidently say this second space age has only just begun," Isaacman said in a post on X, better known as Twitter.

"Space holds unparalleled potential for breakthroughs in manufacturing, biotechnology, mining, and perhaps even pathways to new sources of energy. There will inevitably be a thriving space economy—one that will create opportunities for countless people to live and work in space. With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth."

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With Musk apparently going to be co-head of the proposed US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he'll have the whip hand on discretionary spending by Uncle Sam, which includes NASA's $24 billion budget. It's widely expected the ax will come down hard on a lot of the space agency's programs and work will be given to private contractors instead, and having a SpaceX-friendly boss of the agency would as we said be a big help for Elon, already the world's richest man.

First on the chopping block is likely to be NASA's Space Launch System, which may not be a bad idea, actually. Its monstrously expensive throwaway rockets are outdated, though it may not be as easy to cancel as some might think. NASA has subcontracted the manufacturing to a lot of congressional districts and politicians may not be too keen on their constituents being out of work.

Isaacman has at least made it into orbit and is clearly a huge space nerd. Whether or not that will cross over into being an effective administrator, however, is very much up in the air. ®