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By all accounts, he appears to have a real love of aviation and spaceflight, at both a conceptual and applied level. The tenor of his public posts appears aligned with a\u00a0techno-optimist,\u00a0abundance philosophy, with space travel serving to facilitate economic growth, new technologies, and novel opportunities that will all ultimately improve humanity\u2019s quality of life. While space science is not a frequent topic of his posts, he has defended the continued operations of science missions such as New Horizons, Chandra, and Hubble against budget cuts (and notably offered to boost the Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit during a future Polaris flight). I hope to hear more from him on the role of science in exploration, the unique role of public agencies in enabling science, and what, if any, changes are needed to NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate.<\/p>\n
He is a frequent critic of the Space Launch System, calling it at times \u201coutrageously expensive.\u201d\u00a0 He has also taken aim at major aerospace contractors, saying they are \u201cincentivized to be economically inefficient\u201d and noting that science missions are suffering in order to accommodate a non-reusable rocket that, according to the Government Accountability Office, costs $4 billion per flight. He also considered NASA\u2019s dual contract awards to SpaceX and Blue Origin for the human lunar landing systems for Artemis to be redundant, saying that \u201cbudgets are not unlimited and unfortunate casualties happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is, of course, a fan of SpaceX. As possibly their most valuable private customer, he has worked closely with the company on the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions. That relationship could be very useful in the upcoming administration, assuming Elon Musk remains a trusted and close adviser to the President-elect.<\/p>\n
Unlike Musk, however, Isaacman is not openly partisan. In fact, his reported\u00a0political donations are primarily given to Democratic candidates. This can help him both with his Senate confirmation. Trump\u2019s previous NASA administrator pick, former Republican congressman Jim Bridenstine, endured a bruising confirmation process and ultimately received no Democratic votes. Isaacman carries no such burdens of a political record, and his personal politics may gain him Democratic support. Given the small Republican advantage in the next Senate, bipartisan support could help Isaacman offset any political resistance to his views on projects such as the Space Launch System, of which he has been openly critical.<\/p>\n
His approach to his own private spaceflight is also revealing. He was not a passive tourist. Isaacman appeared to throw himself into the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn planning process, demanding an extensive training regimen for him and his crew. Those missions had risks, but they were anything but cavalier. He also demonstrated a good instinct for public engagement by leveraging the media awareness around his flights to\u00a0raise hundreds of millions of dollars for St. Jude Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
His various business interests and close financial relationship with SpaceX present potential conflicts of interest that must be addressed during his confirmation process. Already, Isaacman\u00a0announced he will step down as CEO of his company in February and take other steps \u201csubject to ethics obligations.\u201d His fondness for SpaceX, which has received more than $11 billion in NASA contracts since the start of the first Trump Administration, and any other financial interests will have to be disclosed and managed in an open and transparent manner.<\/p>\n
Should he be confirmed, Isaacman will assume responsibility for an\u00a0agency at a crossroads in its history. NASA has serious programmatic and management issues besetting Artemis,\u00a0Mars Sample Return, and other projects. The agency has lost billions of dollars of buying power through inflation and budget cuts in recent years and likely faces an austere financial future. If he isn\u2019t aware already, he will quickly discover that the role of NASA administrator is very different from that of CEO of a private company: his budget is set by Congress and managed by the White House\u2019s Office of Management and Budget, parochial political demands define much of the coalition politics, and there are legal contracts and internal processes that resist rapid change. How Isaacman approaches these challenges, and how he works to balance the needs of the various stakeholders, contractors, centers, and programs remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
It would have been far easier, more lucrative, and almost certainly more fun for Isaacman if he had simply remained the billionaire CEO of his own successful company, flying jets and the occasional private mission into space. Being the administrator of NASA in a period of change will not be easy. That he\u2019s stepping down as CEO of the company he founded 26 years ago to lead NASA, suggests he sees this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How he uses it will define NASA’s place in the coming administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n