[President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for NASA administrator, tech billionaire and spaceflight trailblazer Jared Isaacman, is sending shockwaves through the space community, eliciting excited responses from industry leaders who view Isaacman as a changemaker, as well as concerns about conflicts of interest.
Isaacman, 41, is the CEO of Shift4 Payments, which he founded in 1999 at the age of 16. An experienced jet pilot, Isaacman also founded and ran a defense contractor company, called Draken International, that aided training for the Air Force in the 2010s. In recent years, he has garnered international attention for his focus on space.
Isaacman is an unorthodox selection for NASA administrator, as he lacks experience in government or academia, but has a wealth of experience in the space industry. He has twice traveled to space on private missions and has close ties to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
If confirmed, Isaacman would be only the fourth of 15 NASA administrators to have actually traveled to space. His association with the space world derives mostly from his extensive partnership with SpaceX, as a customer and collaborator. This is notable because NASA is relying more heavily on the commercial sector, and SpaceX specifically, as it contracts out more work to companies.
Some industry professionals have hailed Isaacman’s selection as a “perfect pick,” saying he brings a wealth of experience in entrepreneurial enterprise as well as unique knowledge in working with both NASA and SpaceX.
Isaacman’s rise in the space world has not been traditional, but his record may offer some clues as to what could lie in store should he land the space agency’s top role. Under his leadership, NASA would be working on several major initiatives, including the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon by 2024.
Isaacman’s close ties to SpaceX and Musk are likely to raise questions about conflicts of interest. As NASA administrator, he would oversee billions of dollars’ worth of contracts that NASA holds with SpaceX and its direct competitors, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Additionally, Isaacman would likely review and certify SpaceX’s Starship, the gargantuan rocket and spacecraft system that NASA plans to use to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface under its Artemis program.
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