Donald Trump chose on Wednesday to appoint as director of NASA the billionaire Jared Isaacman, a private astronaut associated in business with Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX is today closely linked with the American space agency.
Jared Isaacman, head of payment company Shift4 Payments FOUR.N, has traveled to space twice aboard capsules from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, during private missions as part of his Polaris program, in which he invested hundreds of millions of dollars.
If his nomination is confirmed by the Senate, Jared Isaacman, who is 41 years old and has no political or government experience, will oversee the US space agency and its $25 billion budget.
“Jared will be the driving force behind NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in science, technology and space exploration,” Trump said. in a message on his Truth Social network.
A major donor to Donald Trump’s campaign who became a close advisor to the president-elect, Elon Musk discussed with Donald Trump his desire to colonize the planet Mars and other exploration projects likely to increase the activities of his company SpaceX.
NASA’s main priority is to resume manned trips to the Moon as part of the Artemis program, launched under Donald Trump’s first term and which relies heavily on SpaceX’s Starship launcher.
(Ismail Shakil and Doina Chiacu; Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version)
Swiss
