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
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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.
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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.
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