NASA prioritizes sending American astronauts to Mars, the candidate for President Trump, who leads the space agency.
The candidate is Jared Isaacman, CEO of Payment Processing Company Shift4 Payments and an intimate companion of Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX. As someone who led two private astronaut flights into orbit, he brings a perspective along with new entrepreneurial aerospace companies like SpaceX, if confirmed, to NASA and its $25 billion budget.
In an opening statement released ahead of his hearing by the Senate Committee on Commerce and Science and Technology, Isakuman is expected to “revitalize mission-first culture at NASA.”
While Mars has long been propelled as the ultimate destination for human spaceflight programs, NASA's current focus has been announced in the International Space Station in Low Earth Orbit and Trump's first term, striving to send astronauts back to the moon.
Isakuman testifies that NASA will not abandon the moon, but will treat it as a stepping stone to Mars.
“Along the way, we inevitably have the ability to return to the moon and determine the scientific, economic and national security interests that will maintain our presence on the moon,” he says.
Isaacman will say it will kickstart a vibrant economy in orbit around the globe, increasing the speed of NASA's scientific discoveries.
Isaacman's confirmation hearing could be somewhat clear about NASA's future direction. This, like many federal agencies, is plagued by uncertainty and rumors. The Trump administration has eliminated NASA's chief scientist office and another that provided policy and strategy advice, but so far it has avoided the massive, sometimes confusing layoffs that have taken many other federal agencies by storm.
Musk, a key adviser to Trump, said the lunar program is a “distraction” and that the International Space Station should serve its purpose and throw it away in a few years.
Musk's views refute people that both Republicans and Democrats have in Congress. Last month, Senate Commerce Committee leaders introduced a bill that underlined continuity and predictability, setting out what Congress wanted from NASA.
Isaacman is expected to face questions about the fate of the space launch system, the big new rocket that NASA spent billions of dollars developing over a decade.
In a post to X in October, Isaacman described the SLS rocket as “outrageously expensive,” an example of a traditional NASA program where it was cancelled beyond budgets and beyond schedules.
However, the Artemis II SLS, which is to take four astronauts on a trip around the moon without landing next year, has already been built. The first landing of the lunar astronauts occurs during the Artemis III using another SLS rocket.
Redesigning these missions with another rocket will likely lead to many years of delay. On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, posted to X about his meeting with Isaacman, calling “American astronauts can come back as quickly as possible and develop the technology that needs to go to Mars.”
For many years, NASA was led by people with experience in NASA and the traditional aerospace industry. The last two permanent NASA administrators didn't fit that type and instead were former politicians. During his first administration, Trump chose former Oklahoma Sen. Jim Bridenstyn, while Joseph Biden chose Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.
Isaacman's appointment breaks tradition in many ways. He does not work for NASA and does not have a traditional aerospace background.
However, in February 2021 he announced he was funding a private mission called Inspiration 4. This mission was the first to no one was a professional astronaut as the crew were on SpaceX crew's dragon capsule.
The crew began orbit in September 2021, spending four days in space.
Isakuman followed up last year on another trip to orbit called Polaris Dawn. The mission, a collaboration with SpaceX, tested new technologies, including new space suits that individual astronauts used on their first spacecraft.
Two additional Polaris missions followed, but if Isakuman becomes NASA leader, they will be put on hold.
