Donald Trump continues to name the names of his future administration. The former and future President of the United States announced on X on Wednesday December 4, 2024 that he had chosen billionaire Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator. “I am pleased to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot and astronaut, for the position of Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).”
Billionaire, airplane pilot, darling of SpaceX… Jared Isaacman, 41, nicknamed “Rook” will soon be head of the American space agency.
A billionaire entrepreneur
The businessman has become one of the leading figures in commercial space flight due to his collaborations with SpaceX and is a strong supporter of Musk, who will co-chair a commission on government efficiency. He owes his fortune to founding the company that became Shift4 Payments, specializing in payment processing, in the basement of his family home at the age of 16. It now processes more than $260 billion in transactions per year, covering more than a third of restaurants and hotels across the Atlantic.
But he owes his personal fortune to the sale of his shares in Draken International, a company of which he is co-founder, which actively participates in the training of student pilots for the American Air Force. “He co-founded Draken International, a defense aerospace company, where he served as CEO for more than a decade, supporting the U.S. Department of Defense and our allies,” added the future President on X.
He became known to the general public in September 2024, after carrying out the first private extra-vehicular spacewalk in history. If several dozen people have carried out civilian missions in space, he is the first private astronaut to have left a spacecraft, a risky operation until now reserved for professionals.
This excursion was part of the Polaris program, a collaboration between him and SpaceX, which is to include three missions in total. The financial conditions of this partnership remain confidential but Jared Isaacman would have invested $200 million of his personal fortune to lead SpaceX’s Inspiration4 orbital mission in 2021, an entirely civilian mission and which constituted its first foray into space.
The question of conflicts of interest with SpaceX arises
And its proximity to SpaceX could pose conflict of interest problems. It comes at a delicate time for the famous American space agency, with experts anticipating significant changes in direction during Donald Trump’s new mandate.
The Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts to the Moon, could be at the center of attention, with Donald Trump having repeatedly expressed his preference for a mission to Mars.
The future of the Space Launch System (SLS) lunar rocket, owned by NASA, is also uncertain. The machine was particularly criticized for its high price and its impossible reuse, unlike SpaceX’s Starship rocket, designed to make several trips into space but which remains a prototype.
“Congress is going to have to do its job and provide oversight”declared to theAFP Peter Juul, member of the Progressive Policy Institute think tank. The researcher called on Congress to require contracts with several companies to prevent NASA from becoming a “SpaceX subcontracting agency”.
