Trump Administration Suspends Jared Isaacman’s Nomination as NASA Administrator
The Trump Administration has suspended Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator and will seek another candidate. Donald Trump first put Isaacman forward as NASA’s next administrator in December 2024 while still preparing for his second term as president.
Isaacman thanked the president and Congress in a statement on X. As the below video shows, he got as far as a Congressional hearing on his nomination.
The news broke soon after Musk announced that he was leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (not to be confused with Dogecoin). He feigned confidence that the department’s mission to cut government waste would continue. However, some sources reported heated and occasionally physical conflicts with Trump Administration staff members and disappointment over Trump-backed bills that would add to the deficit.
Jared Isaacman is best known as the CEO of online payment provider Shift4 and organizer of the “Inspiration4” mission, which raised $240 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by raffling off a seat on a multi-day orbital spaceflight. Crew members included Jared Isaacman as commander, physician Hayley Arceneaux as medical officer, Chris Sembroski as the mission specialist who won the seat through the raffle, and Sian Proctor as mission specialist. Isaacman emphasized what he called the four pillars of Inspiration4: Leadership, Hope, Generosity, and Prosperity. He heavily promoted the mission through an advertising campaign that included a Super Bowl commercial.
Inspiration4 launched on September 15, 2021 from the legendary Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It splashed down just off Florida’s coastline in the Atlantic Ocean. The mission has since become the subject of a Netflix documentary titled “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space.”
Isaacman is also bankrolling the “Polaris” series of flights on SpaceX rockets and commanded Polaris Dawn, which featured the first EVA conducted by a private citizen. If everything goes as planned, the third Polaris mission will become the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket. Polaris continues to promote St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
So far, there have been few hints regarding who might replace Isaacman as President Trump’s pick for NASA Administrator. Most speculation involved why: It’s been suggested that the sudden exit hard on the heels of Musk leaving the Department of Government Efficiency means Trump is starting to dump Musk’s associates too.
