Trump nominates Jared Isaacman, a private astronaut and the CEO of Shift4, for the position of NASA chief

Jared Isaacman, the millionaire CEO of Shift4 and the leader of two commercial spaceflights, was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to be the next head of NASA.

In a social media post, Donald Trump stated that Jared will lead NASA’s mission of inspiration and discovery, opening the door for ground-breaking advancements in space science, technology, and exploration.

“Having been fortunate enough to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history,” Isaacman said in a statement accepting Trump’s nomination as NASA administrator.

Serving in this capacity and collaborating with NASA’s incredible staff to fulfill our common aspirations of exploration and discovery is an honor of a lifetime, Isaacman said the audience.

Isaacman intends to depart Shift4 as soon as he is confirmed as NASA administrator. In a letter to Shift4 employees, Isaacman said he would limit his shareholder voting power but would keep the majority of my stock investment and continue to serve as CEO until I was confirmed.

In 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Administrator Bill Nelson to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. CNBC’s request for response from Nelson was not immediately answered.

Nelson, a former US senator, is now in control of NASA’s budget, which is close to $25 billion. Under his leadership, the multibillion-dollar Artemis moon program—the space agency’s top priority—launched the first unmanned mission.

The goal of later proposed crewed missions is to send US astronauts back to the moon, although they have been much delayed and overbudget.

In 2021 and 2024, Isaacman oversaw two crews on multi-day orbits of the earth in two private spaceflights with SpaceX.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has grown closer to him as a result of his spaceflight aspirations and is now a crucial player in Trump’s administration plans.

Isaacman has already criticized NASA’s Artemis design, pointing to the agency’s choice to give Jeff Bezos Blue Origin a second crewed lunar lander contract and the program’s excessive expenditure on disposable SLS rockets.

Spend billions of dollars on lunar lander redundancy that SLS does not provide at the expense of dozens of scientific programs. In a post earlier this year, Isaacman said, “I don’t like it.”

Isaacman has overseen the Polaris Program, which consists of three missions with ever more ambitious objectives, in addition to managing Shift4.

Isaacman performed a quick spacewalk from SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft during the launch of the first mission in that program, Polaris Dawn, earlier this year. This was the company’s first extravehicular activity, or EVA, in space.

After stepping out of the capsule, Isaacman remarked during the spacewalk, “From here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world, but back home, we all have a lot of work to do.”

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