OAN Staff Cory Hawkins
1:26 PM – Thursday, December 18, 2025
The U.S. Senate finally confirmed Jared Isaacman to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Wednesday, marking the billionaire as the space agency’s 15th administrator.
Isaacman is the first person to lead NASA who has personally commanded private space missions, including Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital mission, and Polaris Dawn, which featured the first commercial spacewalk.
His leadership is expected to focus heavily on the Artemis program and accelerating goals to land on the Moon and eventually Mars, often through increased collaboration with commercial partners like SpaceX.
The Trump nominated private astronaut, and CEO of the payment company Shift4, will take the reins at NASA just weeks before the agency is expected to launch Artemis II, a lunar mission that will carry four astronauts around the moon. This mission will be the furthest humans have gone into space since the Apollo program’s termination in 1972.
Excitement sparked among space industry leaders when President Donald Trump first selected Isaacman for the role in 2024, although the nomination had raised concerns about certain conflicts of interest, due to his professional connection to Elon Musk. The nomination was later withdrawn in May this year.
Isaacman has been connected to Musk mainly through commercial spaceflight and business interactions with SpaceX — as he funded and flew multiple missions, has done business with SpaceX projects, and is aligned with Musk’s vision for private space exploration.
Isaacman was later re-nominated in November, but the timing with Musk leaving the Trump administration wasn’t officially the stated reason for the renomination.
Isaacman, a self-made billionaire whose father worked as a home security salesman, founded Shift4 in 1999 at just age 16, building a business empire that would later finance his self-funded orbital space missions. He’s flown to space twice, with Musk’s assistance.
Isaacman’s reputation as a bold space pioneer has reportedly instilled confidence in Trump supporters that his leadership will drive commercial competition, align industry goals with NASA’s mission, and pivot the agency toward cutting-edge technologies.
Following the confirmation, Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) questioned SpaceX for not releasing more information about him.
“This is extremely suspicious. SpaceX has billions to gain from having a friendly NASA administrator, and it seems only fair that the American people understand the extent to which Isaacman and SpaceX are financially intertwined,” Markey reported in a Monday statement. “Sometimes if it looks like corruption, sounds like corruption, and smells like corruption, it’s just plain corruption.”
Markey has demanded that SpaceX release Isaacman from a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) regarding the costs of his private spaceflights.
“I led two missions to space at SpaceX because it’s the only organization that can send astronauts to and from space since the Shuttle was retired. And in that respect, my relationship is no different than that of NASA,” Isaacman said in a December hearing.
During a December hearing, Isaacman was also questioned about his loyalty to Trump and the Republican Party.
“I wouldn’t even begin to want to speculate why the President nominated me,” Isaacman said at the hearing, appearing to reference reports regarding Federal Election Commission (FEC) records showing that he previously donated hundreds of thousands of dollars primarily to Democrat candidates and committees. However, Isaacman has donated to the GOP as well, donating $2 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC (MAGA Inc.).
Isaacman stated at the hearing that the $2 million donation was made while he was briefly considering a run for Congress as a Republican after his initial NASA nomination was withdrawn.
“I am anchored in the center and will always aim to be a unifier rather than a divider,” he added.
Isaacman’s plans for NASA, known as “Project Athena” leaked earlier this month, sparking questions among critics about his true focus with reshaping NASA. Project Athenas 62-page outline highlights revamping NASA centers focus on nuclear electric propulsion, revamping the dead Mars exploration program, and introducing an “accelerate/fix/delete” philosophy to reshape the organization.
Meanwhile, Space exploration advocates, former NASA astronauts, and Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy have all welcomed Isaacman’s position, expressing optimism for the future of space discovery.
“I wish Jared success as he begins his tenure and leads NASA as we go back to the Moon in 2028 and beat China,” Duffy shared on a post on X.
“With decades of experience as an entrepreneur, business leader, and commercial space pioneer, Mr. Isaacman is ideally suited to lead NASA at this critical time in the agency’s history,” said Dave Cavossa, the president of the Commercial Space Federation.
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