((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
(Adds information about NASA in paragraphs 5-6) by Joey Roulette
US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Jared Isaacman to head NASA, choosing a billionaire private astronaut and close associate of Elon Musk to oversee an agency with close ties to the SpaceX founder's business.
Isaacman, chief executive of payments processing company Shift4 Payments FOUR.N , has flown into space twice on missions organized by his Polaris program, an effort using SpaceX vehicles and the company's spacesuits to carry out completely private flights in Earth orbit.
If confirmed, he will oversee the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's roughly $25 billion budget, heavily focused on returning humans to the moon as part of its Artemis program, a multibillion-dollar effort promoted by Trump during his first four-year term and which will rely heavily on SpaceX's spacecraft.
“Jared will lead NASA's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in science, technology and space exploration,” Trump said in a statement. message published on its Truth Social platform.
Mr. Trump's choice for NASA came months earlier than previous presidential transitions, as Mr. Musk, the chief executive and founder of SpaceX, took advantage of his proximity to the president-elect to discuss missions to Mars and other issues related to space exploration that could boost SpaceX. Last month, Mr. Trump attended the sixth test launch of SpaceX's Starship in Texas.
Isaacman, 41, is expected to bolster the agency's strategy of relying on private companies to access space, a growing trend at NASA over the past decade that has posed an existential threat to its rocket Space Launch System, a massive, over-budget launch vehicle built by Boeing BA.N and Northrop Grumman
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Mr. Isaacman will also lead the agency's aeronautics portfolio, which has funded green aviation concepts, as well as a sprawling space science unit that has faced layoffs and budget cuts under President Donald Trump's Democratic presidency. Joe Biden (Nasa), who prioritized the Artemis program.
The last two appointed administrators of NASA were former politicians. The first Trump-appointed NASA chief, Jim Bridenstine, a former congressman from Oklahoma, launched the Artemis program and persuaded Congress to increase the agency's budget to fund it. Joe Biden named former Senator Bill Nelson (Florida) to head NASA.
