Jared Isaacman nominated as next NASA administrator

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Jared Isaacman has been nominated by President-Elect Donald Trump of the United States of America to become the next NASA Administrator after Senator Bill Nelson’s term ends. Isaacman is expected to be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of Trump’s upcoming term.

Isaacman has a long history in the aerospace industry. He launched two large companies, the first being Shift4 Payments, which was founded in 1999 to solve payment processing inefficiencies in the early 2000s. He used his earnings from Shift4 to get involved in the aerospace industry. Isaacman has been involved in aerospace since 2012 when Draken International was founded. Draken International is a defense company that provides fighter aircraft and training services to the US military. 

After Isaacson sold Draken International to Blackstone Group in 2020, he began to get involved with spaceflight through SpaceX. In Feb. 2021, Isaacman announced he would serve as commander of the Inspiration4 mission, the first fully private mission to go to space.  “Rook,” as he was known by his crew of three civilians, lifted off on Crew Dragon launched by Falcon 9 on Sept. 15, 2021. 

Isaacman had bigger dreams for the future of private commercial spaceflight and founded the Polaris program, which launched on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Falcon 9, to bring commercial operations to low-Earth orbit and beyond. This first mission, Polaris Dawn, launched on Sept. 10. 2024 to conduct many inflight experiments and gain data for missions in Earth orbit and future missions to the Moon and Mars. 

Donald Trump posted on Truth Social at 10:58 AM EST on Dec. 4 that he was “delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).” Trump added that Isaacman would pave the way for groundbreaking achievements and would be ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new era. 

Jared Isaacman responded on X, publicly accepting the nomination. He said, “I am honored to receive President Trump’s nomination to serve as the next Administrator of NASA. Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history.”

He added that the second space age has only just begun, and he continued talking about the benefits that space exploration and research can have on Earth. Isaacman also promised in his acceptance letter, “We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place. We will inspire children, yours and mine, to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars, and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth.”

Isaacman’s career in the aerospace industry has pushed for more market commercialization. That will likely continue into his lead of NASA slowly moving future missions to contractors in the industry and giving out contracts instead of governmentally building spacecraft in-house at NASA. This will not happen immediately and take time to phase out, but Isaacman seems like the person who will lead the United States of America to a commercialized future in space. 

Isaacman also praised the idea of going to Mars with a post celebrating SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. When Booster 12 returned to the launch tower and was caught in the arms of the tower, Isaacman posted a rendering of SpaceX’s Starship on Mars with the caption, “Do you believe now?” on the social media site X.

Isaacman is set to fly on at least two more Polaris missions through SpaceX. The next mission was planned to launch with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon on Falcon 9 and the following on Starship. This puts into question whether he will fly on these missions. As the acting administrator of NASA, he would be unlikely to be able to go into space himself. The training required to prepare for a flight to space would likely take up too much time, and safety must be accounted for in essential roles in government, such as the administrator of NASA.

When the time comes, it is more likely that Isaacman will appoint his own crew from past launches or a long list of qualified people in the industry. There is also a possibility that this mission comes after his tenure as administrator. Four years can go fast in the spaceflight industry, and if he is replaced with someone else in a new administration, he could continue his venture into space in early 2029. 

There is also a possibility of using Dragon to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Isaacman hoped that NASA would allow a private crew to service the telescope and give it a new life span. Now, being director of NASA, he will have a lot more power in the decision-making process if that idea passes.

Artist’s rendering of a Crew Dragon performing a reboost maneuver for the Hubble Space Telescope. (Credit: Mack Crawford for NSF/L2)

Isaacman’s love of spaceflight could inspire the world, as he has already done with his Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions. This eagerness could help push the boundaries of what a governmental agency like NASA can do in this new era of spaceflight. Isaacmans time as the founder of multiple successful businesses could prove helpful in swaying other figures in government to help fund NASA’s vision. He could help grow the commercial industry of spaceflight while pushing for research by funding missions like DART or Dragonfly. The next era of NASA and the commercial sector of spaceflight could not be led by a more exciting man than Jared Isaacman.

(Lead Image: Jared Isaacman after returning home in Crew Dragon on the Polaris Dawn mission. Credit: Polaris Program)

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