Trump taps billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to head NASA

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, a seasoned private astronaut with strong ties to Elon Musk and SpaceX, has been selected by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as NASA's next administrator.

If confirmed, Isaacman, 41, would be the fifth NASA administrator with spaceflight experience, replacing former Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who flew into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia in early 1986, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

"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 social media platform Truth Social. "... Jared's passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new Space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new Era."

Isaacman founded the payment processing company later named Shift4 Payments while he was a high school student. He chartered the first purely commercial, all-civilian American "space tourist" mission — Inspiration4 — in February 2021, paying SpaceX an undisclosed amount to launch him and three other civilian flyers on a two-day, 23-hour flight.

He flew to space again this past September, commanding the first of three planned SpaceX Polaris missions, logging nearly five days in space on a flight that took the crew farther from Earth than any astronauts have gone since the Apollo moon program. Isaacman also became the first private citizen to carry out a spacewalk.

He is scheduled to lead another Polaris mission aboard a SpaceX capsule before leading the first crew to space aboard the California rocket builder's gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship rocket.

Dates have not been announced for either of those missions, and it's not yet clear what impact Isaacman's selection to lead NASA will have on those flights, whether Isaacman still intends to fly aboard one or both or what sort of influence his friendship with Musk might have on NASA's future direction.

But Isaacman, a skilled pilot who flies his own MiG-29 fighter jet, made it clear in a post following Trump's announcement that NASA can expect him to be a vocal space advocate who will help "usher in an era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring civilization."

"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," Isaacman said. "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."

He said it would be the "honor of a lifetime to serve in this role and to work alongside NASA's extraordinary team to realize our shared dreams of exploration and discovery."

News.Az