NASA's nominee for administrator, Jared Isaacman, pledged on Wednesday to make a lunar landing his top priority, aligning himself with legislators who advocate concentrating resources on revisiting the Moon rather than following Elon Musk’s vision of heading directly to Mars.
During his confirmation hearing, Isaacman, who is both a commercial astronaut and a billionaire businessman associated with Musk, addressed worries that he might divert funds from an upcoming lunar mission to focus instead on a far riskier and almost unattainable journey to Mars.
"I would love nothing better than to witness... Americans setting foot on the moon," he stated, alluding to the scheduled lunar mission called Artemis. "I believe we don’t necessarily have to make any difficult compromises" when considering both a moon and a Mars mission.
Isaacman’s remarks — in answer to inquiries from Senator Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee — Ted Cruz (R-Texas)—appeared to be at odds with his initial statement, which backed a manned mission to Mars without explicitly committing to landing on the Moon.
The entrepreneur did not dismiss the possibility of the agency eventually backing a Mars landing. However, he emphasized that the Moon would take precedence. He also pledged to keep NASA’s Artemis program ongoing until at least its subsequent journey scheduled for 2026.
Musk, who serves as an advisor to President Donald Trump, has criticized the space agency's emphasis on lunar missions as a "distraction" and instead advocates for a manned expedition to Mars. During his inauguration speech, Trump, whose previous administration had established the objective of returning to the Moon for NASA, pledged that the US would venture towards Mars.
Isaacman stated that he wouldn’t let Musk’s input sway his decisions regarding NASA policy.
Cruz, appearing relieved about the billionaire’s concentration on the Moon mission, cautioned that altering priorities could work to Beijing’s advantage.
“A significant change in focus at this point would likely result in a red moon and could allow China to gain an advantage for many generations,” he stated.
But Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee’s leading Democrat, seemed unimpressed.
She was left with unresolved queries regarding his stance on launching missions, workforce reductions, space facilities, and procurement strategies. In an interview following the hearing, she commented that NASA requires a director who can provide a robust vision to steer the organization clearly, she stated.
“She mentioned that he is still being somewhat unclear about his overall perspective,” she stated.
Joe Gould was involved in providing this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly spelled Ted Cruz's name.