Jared Isaacman, 41 years old, will serve as the NASA Administrator, having founded electronic payment company Shift4, completed the first commercial spacewalk by humans, and is an important investor in SpaceX.
The youngest ever! Musk's close friend will become the head of NASA.
On the afternoon of December 4, local time, USA's president-elect Trump nominated billionaire, entrepreneur, and astronaut Jared Isaacman as the next head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Trump stated that Isaacman's enthusiasm for space and his experience as a private astronaut are among the reasons for his nomination.
Trump stated on his personal social media platform Truth Social:
"Jared will drive NASA's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in space science, technology, and exploration."
Isaacman released a statement on the X platform, stating that under his leadership, NASA will "usher in an era when humanity becomes a true space civilization."
Who is Jared Isaacman?
Public information shows that Isaacman was born in 1983, making him 41 years old. He is an entrepreneur, pilot, philanthropist, and commercial astronaut from the usa. According to the latest estimates by Forbes, Isaacman's personal net worth is 1.9 billion dollars.
In 1999, at just 16 years old, Isaacman dropped out of high school to found the electronic payment company Shift4, which handles payment operations for various restaurants, resorts, hotels, casinos, and sports venues.
In 2020, Shift4 was renamed Shift4 Payments, processing payment transactions exceeding 200 billion dollars annually. In the same year, Musk's SpaceX became a client of Shift4 Payments.
Currently, Shift4 has a market cap of 9 billion dollars, with stock prices at 99.96 dollars, and it is one of the components of the s&p 500 index.
In addition to being an entrepreneur, Isaacman is also an experienced pilot, owning the world's largest fleet of private fighter jets, and has once circled the globe in a plane to break a world record. In 2012, Isaacman co-founded Draken International to train pilots for the US military.
As a commercial astronaut, Isaacman successfully went to space twice and completed one spacewalk. In 2021, Isaacman successfully led the Inspiration 4 mission, the first space flight in human history composed entirely of non-professional astronauts; in 2024, Isaacman also funded and participated in the Polaris Dawn mission, achieving the first spacewalk by a commercial astronaut.
It is worth mentioning that Isaacman’s two space flights were both operated by SpaceX, and Isaacman himself is a close friend of Musk, and is the person who is leaning out in Musk's personal homepage background.
External analysis suggests that Isaacman’s nomination was unexpected. This is because, generally speaking, the president of the usa tends to nominate the NASA administrator weeks or even months after taking office. During his last term, Trump nominated Jim Bridenstine as NASA administrator seven months after taking office.
Isaacman previously stated in an interview that the Trump administration might be more open to alternative ways to reach the moon and Mars at a lower cost.
