Billionaire space enthusiast will lead NASA: but it’s not Musk

Incoming US president Donald Trump has nominated a billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut as his pick to lead NASA. The next few years seem set to be some of the most consequential in the agency’s history.

Isaacman, 41, is the founder and CEO of the payment processing platform Shitf4. According to Forbes, his net worth this year is $1.9 billion.

But he’s much better known as one of the most vocal proponents of commercial spaceflight, having twice orbited Earth on private spaceflights himself. With NASA increasingly relying on private space companies, Isaacman’s nomination is fitting.

Unsurprisingly, Isaacman is also a major customer of SpaceX, a company founded by another billionaire, Elon Musk, who’s spent most of the transition period at Trump’s elbow and is going to co-lead a government efficiency commission.

Isaacman flew on a SpaceX rocket to the highest orbit since the Apollo era this year. In September, he and a crewmate became the first private astronauts to perform spacewalks using SpaceX’s new extravehicular activity suits.

Commander @rookisaacman has egressed Dragon and is going through the first of three suit mobility tests that will test overall hand body control, vertical movement with Skywalker, and foot restraint pic.twitter.com/XATJQhLuIZ

undefined SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024

“Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said after emerging from the SpaceX Dragon capsule. He spent just over 10 minutes out in the vacuum of space.

He’s close to SpaceX

Isaacman likes big words. In accepting the nomination from Trump, he wrote on X: “I can promise you this: 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.”

I am honored to receive President Trump’s @realDonaldTrump 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.

On my last mission…

undefined Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) December 4, 2024

Earlier, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that Isaacman’s passion for space and “dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration” make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a new era.

Isaacman is certainly full of ideas, not dissimilar to what Musk’s been saying. He is, for instance, extremely confident that America will send humans to the Moon and Mars: “In doing so, we will make life better here on Earth.”

The incoming NASA head has also said he’d fund a private mission to boost the orbit of the aging Hubble Telescope. The agency didn’t agree before, but it might now.

Multi-planetary life and the possibility of a thriving space economy are things Isaacman keeps talking about – as is, of course, Musk. On X, he wrote: “Space holds unparalleled potential for breakthroughs in manufacturing, biotechnology, mining, and perhaps even pathways to new sources of energy.”

Although Isaacman has been to space twice, he’s not part of the NASA astronaut corps and actually has a closer relationship with SpaceX than the government space agency.

After Trump’s announcement, proponents of the commercial space industry, including Musk, rushed to applaud the President-elect’s choice. Most of them think NASA will only increase commercial space efforts now.

Will Artemis be fine?

Space experts also see the next four years as critical to NASA and its plans for space exploration.

The International Space Station might be de-orbited during Trump’s term, for instance, and SpaceX’s Starship will probably begin flying commercial missions.

First and foremost, though, Isaacman will have to tackle the question of the agency’s Artemis program. The goal of this program is to establish a permanent base on the Moon, thus facilitating future human missions to Mars. Private companies are helping NASA develop the technology required for this program.

Several crewed missions under Artemis have been severely delayed, so observers are already speculating what Isaacman will say during Senate confirmation hearings. Does he favor the Artemis program, or would he divert more resources toward a human mission to Mars?

So far, a major change looks unlikely – Artemis enjoys bipartisan support in Congress, and the Joe Biden administration chose to continue the program that began under Trump in 2017.

And Isaacman has said previously that he views reaching the Moon and Mars as part of the same mission – without establishing a permanent base on the Moon it’d be extremely difficult to send humans to Mars.

Cracks are already visible

NASA’s funding issues are well known, and this can explain its ever cozier ties with private space companies that are eager to revive America’s ambitions in space.

After the ultra-expensive space race between the US and the Soviet Union ended with the collapse of the communist superpower, support in Washington for costly space exploration evaporated, and the agency’s budget was significantly slashed.

Many NASA contractors are struggling financially, and some have bowed out of commercial space programs entirely.

“From being the sole nation on Earth capable of landing humans on the moon, the US fell to having the wherewithal only to transport humans to ‘low Earth orbit,’ and then, finally, lost the ability to take anyone to orbit at all,” the late Henry Kissinger wrote in his final book about AI, Genesis.

However, there are risks. Many NASA contractors are struggling financially, and some have bowed out of commercial space programs entirely.

Observers say cracks are clearly visible, even though the vast majority of NASA’s plans rely on contracts with private companies. If the commercial space revolution goes bust, the agency will be effectively paralyzed.