By David Shepardson and Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Maxim) – On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s pick for NASA leadership, entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, encountered inquiries from senators regarding his connections with Elon Musk and how he plans to reconcile Trump's emphasis on reaching Mars with NASA's primary lunar mission initiative.
Isaacman, the head of the payments firm Shift4 Payments, maintains a strong relationship with SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk. He has journeyed to outer space twice aboard one of SpaceX’s vessels as a civilian astronaut.
Isaacman declined to respond when asked if Musk was present in the room when Trump offered him the position of NASA administrator.
The wealthy entrepreneur has arrived in Washington to attend a confirmation hearing with the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where differing opinions about sending American astronauts to the Moon and Mars took center stage.
If confirmed, Isaacman, who is 42 years old, would be responsible for managing approximately 18,000 staff members and a budget of about $25 billion. His focus will largely revolve around bringing astronauts back to the lunar surface through a project known as Artemis. This initiative was launched under President Trump’s administration during his initial term in office.
Senator Ted Cruz, who represents the state of Texas where NASA’s Johnson Space Center is located in Houston, questioned the nominee about their plans for lunar exploration. He emphasized the strong rivalry regarding the moon, particularly mentioning China's ambition to land its own astronauts there by 2030.
"I find it extremely difficult to imagine a greater blunder in space than telling communist China, ‘The Moon is yours; America will not take the leading role,’" Cruz stated at the beginning of his remarks.
However, the president along with Musk, who invested $250 million in backing Trump’s presidential run and advocated for Isaacman’s appointment, has started focusing intensely on Mars as a key national objective. This shift has sparked queries regarding NASA’s lunar initiative, which has already received billions of dollars in funding.
"I definitely hope to witness our return to the Moon... we aren’t forced to choose between going to the Moon or Mars," Isaacman stated, adding that NASA has the capability to undertake both lunar and Martian missions at the same time.
When queried about his stance on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket—a key component of the lunar mission costing billions—Isaacman refrained from giving direct backing. However, he mentioned that this rocket is included in the present strategy and expressed hope for the successful journey of the Artemis 2 crew to the moon. It should be noted that Isaacman had earlier described the SLS as “unreasonably costly.”
"He subsequently stated that he believes this to be the most efficient and quickest method to reach their destination," referring to SLS and Orion, the multi-billion-dollar crew capsule constructed by Lockheed Martin, which is positioned above the SLS.
"I don't believe this is the optimal solution for consistently traveling to and from the moon and Mars over the long haul, but this is our current plan. We need to use it to send this crew around the moon and the next one to make a lunar landing," he stated.
When asked whether he has communicated with Musk about running NASA, Isaacman stated, “Not at all,” emphasizing that his allegiance lies with NASA rather than companies like SpaceX —“SpaceX is the contractor; NASA is the client. They work for us, not vice versa.”
CONTRACTS WITH SPACEX
SpaceX holds approximately $15 billion in NASA contracts, providing the organization its sole American transportation system for sending astronauts into space and a lunar lander designed to deliver crews to the moon within this decade.
Isaacman informed the senators that he doesn’t understand why the 25-year-old orbital laboratory, the International Space Station, would be brought down from orbit before the scheduled date in 2030, which is when NASA aims to substitute it with privately operated space stations.
Musk has proposed bringing down the space station from orbit in 2027 to concentrate efforts on Mars exploration, which came as an unexpected stance that upset Cruz, based on insights from three individuals aware of his viewpoint. SpaceX holds a deal to decommission the ISS by 2030.
The four astronauts designated for NASA's Artemis 2 mission — involving a lunar flyby in 2026 prior to a later moon landing — were present at the hearing with prime seating.
As an advocate for Musk and serving as an astronaut on pioneering SpaceX missions, Isaacman would bolster NASA’s approach of relying on private firms for space access as a commercial venture—a model that could jeopardize the space programs led by traditional contractors such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman, which are primarily responsible for building the SLS.
Isaacman's credentials have earned him support from a major trade association that represents over 85 aerospace firms along with 28 ex-astronauts.
Although NASA’s previous two administrators had proven adept at managing the agency’s funding from their roles as experienced policymakers well-versed in congressional matters, Isaacman lacks this political expertise. However, during the hearing, he presented his unconventional profile as a strength.
(Reported by David Shepardson in Washington and Joey Roulette in Colorado Springs; edited by Chris Sanders and Nick Zieminski)