Jared Isaacman, Elon Musk’s Space Business Partner, Could Run NASA

President Donald Trump’s pick for NASA administrator, billionaire Jared Isaacman, is highly unusual — or it would at least be usual for a normal administration. 

Isaacman has a contract worth tens of millions of dollars, or more, with Elon Musk’s spaceflight and satellite company, SpaceX. Isaacman, a pilot and commercial astronaut, has  traveled to space twice on SpaceX spacecraft.

The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a hearing on Isaacman’s nomination.

“With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place,” Isaacman posted on X in December. “We will inspire children, yours and mine, to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth.”

According to Isaacman’s financial disclosure, his agreement with SpaceX for his Polaris Program, his private spaceflight program, is worth more than $50 million. The agreement is for “space flight services & strategic agreements.” 

As NASA administrator, Isaacman would likely oversee the agency’s relationship with the SpaceX, which has been conducting travel to and from the International Space Station. They recently brought two astronauts back to Earth who had been stranded by a Boeing spacecraft. NASA also plans to work with SpaceX to send people to the moon. Musk even said SpaceX will launch an unmanned spacecraft to Mars by next year.

SpaceX has also experienced two fiery failures this year. Earlier this month, an unmanned SpaceX rocket exploded mid-air, disrupting roughly 500 flights and raining debris over Florida and the Caribbean. The rocket, Starship, was cleared to fly shortly after another Starship rocket exploded in January.

“I think SpaceX is on — for our time — the most incredible adventure imaginable,” Isaacman told CNN in August. “It’s not just about Mars. … It’s actually the possibility of unlocking life’s mysteries. Where did we really come from? What is our purpose?”

According to NASA, the agency has spent more than $15 billion on SpaceX. 

In his ethics agreement, Isaacman promised that he would terminate his company’s contracts with SpaceX, and said that SpaceX would send a refund for services that had not been completed yet — meaning that his company could receive millions from SpaceX if he is confirmed. 

In 2021, Isaacman self-funded the first spaceflight to Earth’s orbit manned by civilians only, Inspiration4. He and three colleagues, who were contest winners, flew on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for three days. 

After this flight, Isaacman contracted with SpaceX to create the Polaris Program, which is focused on spaceflight. In September 2024, he traveled to space in the Crew Dragon for a second time. He made the trip with three other people, two of whom worked for SpaceX. Isaacman became the first person to carry out a commercial spacewalk. The astronauts also tested new SpaceX space suits. Isaacman planned to travel to space two more times in future Polaris-SpaceX missions. 

Isaacman is separately the founder and CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company. He also founded a defense contractor, Draken International, which contracts with the Air Force and the Marines as well as the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. It has the world’s largest private fleet of military aircraft. He sold part of his stake in 2019. 

Shift4 is tied financially to SpaceX. Documents show that Shift4 purchased $27.5 million worth of SpaceX shares in 2021. Isaacman owns 25 percent of Shift4. 

Isaacman said in an email to Shift4 employees that he would “retain the majority of my equity interest in Shift4, subject to ethics obligations” if he were to assume the position of NASA administrator, CNN reported.

He has defended Musk in the past.

“I don’t need to have a public opinion on [Elon Musk’s] politics because there is much more to the man and his companies,” Isaacman posted on X in October. “What I care about are the enormous world-changing problems Elon and his companies are working to solve and generally, how I can help.”

Isaacman has criticized NASA’s approach of having two private companies, SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, develop different lunar landers in case one malfunctions. He said that NASA should spend money more wisely and only work with one company. 

“People falsely assume its because I want SpaceX to win it all, but budgets are not unlimited & unfortunate casualties happen,” he posted on X last March. 

“Spend billions on lunar lander redundancy … at the expense of dozens of scientific programs,” he added. “I don’t like it.”