Billionaire who performed the first private spacewalk to lead NASA

Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire and CEO of Shift4, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to lead NASA. Isaacman, known for purchasing several spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, became the first private person to conduct a spacewalk in 2021. If confirmed, he will replace Bill Nelson, the former Democratic senator from Florida. Isaacman expressed his passion for America leading space exploration, having experienced space firsthand.

During Nelson’s tenure, NASA made significant progress toward returning astronauts to the moon through the Artemis program. Isaacman’s appointment is seen as a step in NASA’s continued reliance on SpaceX for missions, including moon landings and International Space Station flights. NASA is also pursuing more cost-effective ways of conducting space exploration, including missions to Mars and Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Isaacman, a fighter jet pilot, dropped out of high school at 16 and later built his business from his parents’ basement. He has also set a world speed record and established Draken International, the largest private fleet of fighter jets. He has future SpaceX flights planned, including one around Earth with the Starship rocket.

Source – CGTN