Trump picks billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead Nasa
The tech CEO is a close collaborator with Elon Musk, and took part in the world’s first commercial spacewalk with SpaceX
A tech billionaire who bought a series of space flights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk was nominated by US president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to lead Nasa.
Jared Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of a card-processing company, has been a close collaborator with Musk ever since buying his first chartered flight with SpaceX.
He took along contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits.
If confirmed, Isaacman will replace Bill Nelson, 82, a former Democratic senator from Florida who was nominated by US President Joe Biden. Nelson flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1986 – on the flight right before the Challenger disaster – while a congressman.
Isaacman said he was honoured to be nominated and would be “grateful to serve”. “Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history,” he said on social media.
During Nelson’s tenure, Nasa picked up steam in its effort to return astronauts to the moon. This next-generation Apollo programme – named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister Artemis – plans to send four astronauts around the moon as soon as next year. The first moon landing in more than half a century would follow.
