Scott Detrow, host:
This week, President-elect Donald Trump nominated technology and aerospace billionaire and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman has been to space twice, and on his most recent trip in September, became the first civilian to perform a spacewalk. A few days later, I talked to him on the show.
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DETROW: I don’t want to go back to that spacewalk. What is the biggest difference between what you imagined and what you actually saw?
Jared Isaacman: As you can imagine, Earth certainly looked beautiful. But then I looked out into the darkness of space and had a very unpleasant feeling that this was a threatening environment for humans. We certainly didn’t evolve to be here. And if you want to be here, you have to work hard to carve out this final frontier. That was one of the big gains for me.
DETROW: If he is confirmed, Isaacman will lead NASA at a critical and volatile time. The agency is aiming to return to the moon, but plans were once again delayed this week. And of course, Elon Musk and SpaceX are hovering over it. If you want to know more about Isaacman’s nomination and the Trump administration’s space program, I’m joined by NPR’s Jeff Branfiel, who I think is NPR’s space correspondent. Thank you for being here again.
JEFF BRANFILL, BYLINE: Hello, Scott. I’m glad we were together.
DETROW: So remember who Isaacman is and how you can become an astronaut at your own expense.
Branfiel: Yeah. Well, Isaacman is first and foremost an entrepreneur. He founded his first company at the age of 16. We eventually built an online payments platform called Shift4, which we still operate today. He also always wanted to be a pilot or astronaut, so he actually started flying fighter jets in his 20s and founded another company called Draken, which actually trains military pilots to fly jets. did. And he got in touch with SpaceX and, as you said, funded these two private missions into orbit. He wouldn’t say how much he paid, but it was probably a lot.
DETROW: Yeah. How common is that for NASA administrators?
BRUMFIEL: Outgoing administrator Bill Nelson – he’s been to space, too. He did it when he was a member of the House of Representatives. He took to the skies aboard the space shuttle. The difference here, of course, is that Mr. Isaacman was doing it entirely in person, just aboard a SpaceX spacecraft.
DETROW: Well, this comes at a time when Donald Trump seems to be spending every waking moment with Elon Musk, who leads SpaceX, right? There are broader questions here about what it means for spaceflight and NASA. what are you thinking?
Brumfiel: So I think that’s the big question. I think the problem is not about commercial spaceflight in general, but about SpaceX in particular. So NASA already relies heavily on SpaceX. SpaceX currently provides the only vehicle to the space station. SpaceX already has a multibillion-dollar contract from NASA, and NASA relies heavily on SpaceX. Under Isaacman’s leadership, it looks like it could grow even further. Some people would like to see NASA ask other companies to help. But this is what Isaacman said on CNBC’s final bell last month.
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ISAACMAN: At SpaceX, it’s almost controversial to award contracts to companies that offer the best product at the lowest cost. I almost had to throw money away at an alternative vendor to make it look less Elon friendly.
Brumfiel: So he obviously has no problem giving SpaceX more money. I should say he’s also a friend of Elon’s. His company Shift4 is an investor in SpaceX and has a five-year contract to manage payments for the Starling satellite network. He also told the Wall Street Journal that he owns a direct stake in SpaceX. As such, it appears SpaceX could become even more central to NASA’s plans.
DETROW: Do you know what other changes Isaacman might make at NASA?As I said, there are a lot of projects in the works, many of which are undecided.
Brumfiel: Yeah, I mean, I think the big question here is about Artemis’ mission to the moon. As you know, Artemis is currently going to be launched on this huge rocket. This is a rocket developed by the government. We’re years behind schedule, and like you said, we’re just behind again. I think Isaacman will try to kill that program and put the money toward SpaceX’s Starship rocket. Starship is already scheduled to land on the moon, but it is not the vehicle chosen to take astronauts there. So one could imagine that Isaacman would try to change things to make Starship the primary vehicle to go to the moon.
Now, it’s not just about masks. I’d like to say that Isaacman really cares about spaceflight. He really values science. In fact, he recently intervened on behalf of the X-ray telescope that was slated for closure, flying to the Hubble Space Telescope to try to save that telescope as well. NASA rejected the mission, but Isaacman really cares about what NASA does, and I think that’s important.
DETROW: Yeah. Last question – he was planning a series of private space missions. Did he say if they are paused or what will happen next?
Brumfiel: I haven’t seen any comment from him on that yet. It’s hard to imagine a NASA administrator flying into space with all the work they have to do on Earth.
DETROW: I see.
Brumfiel: You know, anything can happen in this administration.
DETROW: NPR’s Jeff Brumfield. thanks so much.
Brumfield: Thank you.
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