Regular readers will instantly recognize the name of Jared Isaacman, as the
tech company CEO who flew this September's Polaris Dawn mission and
the Inspiration4 mission in September of 2021. Today, Dec. 4, president elect
Trump
announced via social media
that he has picked Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of payment-processing
company Shift4 Payments,to lead NASA. Isaacman both
funded and commanded those two missions, flown on SpaceX hardware. (The pilot
was Scott “Kidd” Poteet, also from Shift4). The third Polaris program launch has been talked about as the first manned flight of Starship; that might be affected by this appointment.
"Jared will drive NASA's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in space science, technology and exploration," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, the platform he launched in 2022.
"Jared's passion for space, astronaut experience and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe and unlocking the new space economy make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new era."
For his part, Isaacman replied (also on X):
"I am honored to receive President Trump's nomination to serve as the next Administrator of NASA. Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history,"
If you followed the two manned missions, you will have also seen that Isaacman has some ... let's just say unusual private jets; the kind only billionaires can have. Two are pictured at the top here, another is pictured at the top of the Ars Technica coverage of this story. He flies those, as well.
It's a very easy prediction that current NASA Administrator Bill Nelson would be highly likely to be let go from that job, and at 82 is not likely to run for office again; he was our State and Federal Representative, as well as our US Representative and Senator at various times. Coincidentally, Jared Isaacman is exactly half of Nelson's age: 41.
I think it's worth the minute or so to read Isaacman's reply to Trump, copied here from a screen capture:
Another solid pick.
ReplyDeleteWhether he can turn the pig around remains to be seen.
Good. If DOGE does the work to clean out the deadwood, then amazing things can happen.
ReplyDeleteHopefully SLS will be the FIRST program eliminated!
DeleteThe whole "I was born" paragraph is just thrilling. Sad that we've, for the most part, lost more and more will and ability to achieve, only to be turned around by really one company.
ReplyDeleteI hope we never lose the will nor the ability ever again.
Nuclear starships, transit times in weeks and not months. Moon bases, Mars bases, bases in the asteroid belt, research bases on the moons of the rest of the planets, multiple constellations in between all the planets' orbits to allow communication and information to flow like never before. The future, not the dead past.
And he's not a giant schmuck like Bill Nelson is, even though Nelson has surprised me with being remarkably adept and excellent as the current NASA admin.
The other besty thing about this is who the president of the Space Council is. That's a position held by... the Vice President of the United States. Biden sucked at it, like he sucks at anything except sucking. Pence was... okay, but a politician first then an administrator. Harris was vacant. Now we'll have JD Vance, who actually has functional brain cells and knows how to use them.
I bet everyone involved in SLS is freaking out right now. The only way that turd doesn't get cancelled is Congress controls (way too much controls) all aspects of it.
Exciting times!!!
YOWZA!!!
ReplyDeleteDo not forget that the 'Socialist calculation debate' of 1920-1930 proved that central economic planning can't produce the results it claims to. That said, he is better than the usual ICBM gun control shill who creates as much red tape as possible. What are you cheering for? Candidate X who produces only Y% waste instead of 3*Y%? This is my Bill Murray disappointed face.
ReplyDeleteI hope that big personalities don't get in the way of Jared (or any other appointee) doing their jobs. Is a test pilot and risk taker going to make an effective administrator? Or will he be a Biden, i.e. only the public face of NASA.?
ReplyDeleteAnd...isn't DOGE going to cut most of NASA? There's no real need for it now. Science missions should be done by corporations and educational institutions without the political considerations and kickbacks that NASA was differently enabled by.
Makes sense they would pick one from their barely known circle of financial collaborators, most likely selecting an outsider is not an option. I got the impression from the start Jared was an investor of sorts inside the SpaceX organization, being the tight lipped bunch they are, which rarely provides insider info past Glenn Shotwell's regular PR. Noticed Glenn kind of told on herself, that last PR conference before flight 6, being an engineer, she said a couple things an active engineer would never say. She covered herself quickly though. But again she is their most forward PR agent, not involved day to day in engineering. Jared's particulars in the beginning sound like standard PR fluff, basically as a wealthy philanthropist. Maybe a kind of gung-ho daredevil, willing to be on the 1st human rated StarShip flight. Early catch of the ship with people on board is got to be one heck of a hairy experience.
ReplyDeleteThought it was interesting Jared and his wingman flight buzzing the tower with flight 4 on the pad. They only showed one pass, wonder how many passes it took to get a good edit piece for publication. Bet that was a lot of fun swooping around the launch area. Those trainers he owns are pretty slick little jets, definitely a very wealthy man's aircraft, having what three and maybe a back up spare?
ReplyDeleteBet flight hours are in relative terms very economical for hi-performance jet aircraft.
Trainers? He's got a fully staffed air force, albeit 1990's vintage, that's larger than all but a dozen or so countries.
DeleteNo flies on those trainer jets buddy, they are state of the art superbly maneuverable mini fighter jets, slap on some rails and mount armament to them. Some small countries buy them for that use because they don't bankrupt the treasury.
ReplyDeleteAt the top of that article I linked to on Ars Technica, it shows him with his own MIG-29.
DeleteMy gut feeling is that's probably a bit more capable than the Dassaults but I honestly don't know if either aircraft requires more hours of maintenance when it lands than hours it just flew