CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump nominated Jared Isaacman, a technology entrepreneur known for his significant investments in space travel, to lead NASA on Wednesday. Isaacman, 41, is the CEO and founder of a credit card processing enterprise who has established a strong partnership with Elon Musk, purchasing multiple spaceflights from SpaceX. He made headlines in 2021 by taking contest winners on a private space mission and later became the first individual to conduct a private spacewalk, testing SpaceX’s latest suits.
If his nomination is confirmed, Isaacman will take over the reins from Bill Nelson, an 82-year-old former Democratic senator from Florida, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. Nelson has a notable history with NASA, having flown on the space shuttle Columbia in 1986, just before the tragic Challenger disaster during his time as a congressman.
Expressing his appreciation for the nomination, Isaacman stated that he would be “grateful to serve.” He shared his enthusiasm for leading the enormous adventure in space exploration, expressing a desire to see the Earth’s wonders from space again and to contribute to America’s role in this fascinating journey.
During Nelson’s administration, NASA ramped up its missions to land astronauts on the moon once more, under the Artemis program, named for the mythological twin sister of Apollo. The aim is to dispatch four astronauts around the moon as early as next year, marking the first lunar landing in over fifty years.
NASA has relied on SpaceX for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station and for other supply missions. Meanwhile, Boeing’s initial crew launch encountered severe issues, leading to an extended stay at the space station instead of the planned eight days. The crew is set to make their return aboard a SpaceX vehicle in February, after spending more than eight months in orbit.
Additionally, NASA’s ambitions extend beyond the moon, aiming to explore the depths of the solar system. Robotic missions are currently underway, including a spacecraft heading toward Jupiter’s moon Europa and the Mars rover Perseverance, which is collecting samples from the Martian surface.
With budget constraints in mind, NASA is exploring more efficient methods to extract Martian samples, aiming to avoid the original plan that ballooned to $11 billion with a projected delivery timeframe extending to 2040. To address these challenges, NASA is seeking innovative solutions from private industry and other external sources.
Musk congratulated Isaacman on the nomination through a social media post, praising him as a person of “high ability and integrity.”
Known for his adventurous spirit, Isaacman, who has flown fighter jets, has called himself a “space geek” from a young age. He left high school at 16 to earn a GED and kickstarted a business from his parent’s basement, which eventually evolved into Shift4. Isaacman resides in eastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two young daughters.
In 2009, he set a world record for speed around the globe while raising funds for Make-A-Wish and later founded Draken International, which boasts the largest private fleet of fighter jets. Isaacman has additional plans for two more flights with SpaceX, including a mission that will see Starship’s first crew orbited around Earth.
