In-Depth: Administrator Isaacman
With Jared Isaacman about to become the 15th NASA Administrator, what can we expect from his administration?
Who is Jared Isaacman?
Isaacman founded United Bank Card in 1999 at the age of sixteen. Now rebranded as Shift4, it’s a payment processing company based in Pennsylvania, processing transactions for over 200,000 businesses in Hospitality, Travel, Crypto, Transit, and more. It is currently valued at over $7 billion.
Jared has a long history in aviation, from setting a world record in 2009 for the fastest time to circumnavigate the globe in a light jet to flying hundreds of airshows worldwide. In 2012, he founded Draken International, who provide contract air services of tactical fighter aircraft to military and defence industry customers.
Personal Wealth
In 2019, he sold Draken International to Blackstone for a nine-figure sum, putting him into billionaire status. But Jared is not your stereotypical billionaire.
He has always been committed to spreading the personal wealth made from his ventures. In a letter to the Giving Pledge from Jared, his wife Monica and their daughters Mila and Liv, they write:
“I can't imagine going through life without trying to make the world a better place than we found it. It doesn't feel like something optional to me, but an obligation and one some of us should shoulder more than others […] With enormous gratitude, my family and I pledge to donate the majority of our wealth to making life better for those in need, and help build the foundation for the human advances of tomorrow”.
Space
Jared’s extensive background in spaceflight began in 2021 with the announcement of Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to space. Once completed, he announced a further three missions under the Polaris Program. Both of these missions, I4 and PD, demonstrate where his beliefs in the space industry lay; solving problems here on Earth, whilst at the same time focusing on advancing human spaceflight in the private sector and human spaceflight as a whole.
On the 4th of December 2024, then-President-Elect Donald Trump nominated Jared Isaacman to become the 15th NASA Administrator. The immediate reaction from mainstream media was uncertain. What could Jared, a commercial astronaut and a billionaire with no direct NASA experience, realistically bring to the role? The reaction from space fans was quite the opposite: overjoyed. Overjoyed that someone like Jared, who has the space industry’s best interests at heart, is heading up the future of NASA.
Two big questions were brought up in the days after his nomination. What will happen at his payments company, Shift4 and what will happen with his current spaceflight program, Polaris Dawn?
Shift4
On the point of Shift4, on the day that Jared’s nomination was announced, he sent out a letter to all Shift4 employees laying out his plan.
“After nearly 26 years leading Shift4, the time has come for me to embark on a new journey. I was nominated to lead NASA - a role that reflects my passion for advancing humankind’s reach among the stars, unlocking the secrets of the universe, and improving life on Earth along the way.”
He plans to remain CEO until his confirmation into the NASA Admin role, but said, “While I can envision a future where I return, I know the company is in great hands”. Taylor Lauber, current Shift4 President, will succeed as CEO once Jared has been confirmed as Administrator.
Polaris Program
In a letter from Jared to Iris Lan, the Designated Agency Ethics Official at NASA, he described the steps he’s taken or is taking to “avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest” if he is confirmed as the 15th NASA Administrator. The seven-page letter details his resignation from Shift4 Payments, 26 North Aviation, JDI Holdings and Bone Horse Hangars. It then lists entities that will “remain dormant and will not advertise”. These include Rook Holdings, Rook Aviation Holdings, Bone Horse Marine, RookX and Rook Space Investments.
The information everyone’s looking for is in the RookX and Rook Space Investments sections. RookX has contracts with SpaceX for human spaceflight services, that being the Polaris Program. Once Jared is confirmed as Administrator, RookX will terminate all agreements with SpaceX, essentially meaning the next two Polaris Program missions will be cancelled; although it’s likely Jared will restart the program once his tenure at NASA is complete. RookX also owns the trademarks of Polaris Dawn, Polaris Program and Polaris Jet, but the licensure or use of these trademarks will not be permitted during Jared’s term as Administrator, meaning the continuation of the Polaris Program by another individual will not be allowed.
Rook Space Investments, a separate LLC from RookX, “will remain dormant and will not advertise”.
Budget
Jared often speaks openly about various current events affecting spaceflight on his X page. One topic he has commented on in the past is the NASA budget.
In an X thread from March 2024 regarding the shutdown of NASA’s Chandra space telescope, Jared wrote, “I will try to help, but this is why I get frustrated at two lunar lander contracts…”. In reply to a comment about the need for built-in redundancy to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, he wrote, “Spend billions on lunar lander redundancy that you don’t have with SLS at the expense of dozens of scientific programs. I don’t like it.”
In another X post from September 2023, replying to then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on the topic of the construction of the Artemis-II SLS, Jared wrote, “It may be expensive, but it is still damn cool to see a Moon rocket get assembled”.
From these posts, it would be logical to conclude that the allocation of the NASA budget ($20 billion in 2020), the need to keep scientific programs running and an evaluation of the cost of SLS will be the main focus of Jared and his NASA Administration.
The ISS
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and close ally of US President Trump called for the early destruction of the International Space Station in an X post a few weeks ago, saying, “It has served its purpose… Let’s go to Mars”.
While this was just a recommendation from Musk (coming not long after an online argument with the ISS Expedition 70 commander), the US President is known to take his opinions seriously. If Musk’s recommendation of two years does somehow come to fruition, Jared’s NASA Administration would take on the task of completing the final crew rotation and coordinating the use of SpaceX’s ISS de-orbit vehicle.
While Jared hasn’t publicly commented on this proposal from Musk, he is incredibly enthusiastic about human spaceflight and is fond of the ISS. Whether or not Jared is willing to fight for the continuation of the ISS until 2030 is yet to be seen.
The Moon
Artemis, NASA’s program to get back to the Moon, is an effort of several private companies, including Blue Origin, SpaceX and a coalition of the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and others.
Two main criticisms of the Artemis Program have been cost and timeline. After SpaceX was selected for the Human Landing System contract, both Blue Origin and Dynetics filed “formal protests” with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) challenging “NASA’s unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals”. Blue Origin then asked the court to suspend all further spending by NASA on the SpaceX HLS contract – this meant that on April 30th, 2021, NASA suspended the Starship HLS contract. In May of 2021, Senator Cantwell from Washington, the state where Blue Origin is based, introduced an amendment that would direct NASA to once again open the HLS competition and select another proposal to accompany SpaceX’s Starship. This proposed second contract would total $10 billion. The GAO rejected Blue Origin’s protest and said that NASA did not violate any laws in their contract choices. On the same day the decision was made, NASA made an initial payment of $300 million to SpaceX, the initial contract payment.
Blue Origin went on to create a well-known infographic comparing their own HLS proposals with SpaceX’s HLS proposal; but they left out one key point. The price difference in the contract. In May 2023, NASA awarded Blue Origin with an HLS contract worth $3.4 billion, more than the amount awarded to SpaceX.
In an X post from Jared in 2022, he wrote, “I agree, we don't need two [Moon] landers. There was a competition & winner selected”. Whether Jared still has the opinion of only needing one Moon lander, the one that is the best price from the best company, we don’t know. He’ll soon be going into the highest office at NASA, and it is yet unknown if Jared will explore that route.
Support
Since December, when President Trump announced the nomination, there has been an outpouring of support from around the world.
On March 14th, twenty-eight former NASA Astronauts signed a letter to Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The Astronauts, including Nicole Stott, Cady Coleman, Scott Kelly, and Rusty Schweickart of Apollo 9, wrote:
“Having dedicated our careers and lives to support NASA and space exploration, we are deeply concerned about the Agency's future. It is critical that NASA maintains its position as the preeminent space development organization […] We believe that Jared Isaacman is uniquely qualified to lead NASA at this critical juncture […] We urge the Senate Commerce Committee to hold Mr. Isaacman's confirmation hearing as soon as practical.”
The endorsement of nearly thirty retired NASA Astronauts in a letter directly to Ted Cruz reflects the extent of the support Jared has within the space industry and NASA itself.
But the support doesn’t end there. Jim Bridenstine, former NASA Administrator from 2018 to 2021, praised Jared during a talk at SGx2025, saying:
“I think Jared Isaacman is going to be an amazing NASA administrator […] I think he’s got all the tools to be what could be the most consequential NASA administrator given the era in which we live in now.”
Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee, Governor Sarah Sanders of Arkansas, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, Governor Mike Kehoe of Missouri, Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma and Governor Gregg Abbott of Texas also signed a letter to Ted Cruz in support of Jared’s confirmation.
“Jared Isaacman is uniquely qualified to lead NASA at this critical juncture. A visionary entrepreneur, accomplished pilot, and pioneer of private spaceflight, he has a proven track record of turning ambitious goals into reality. […] The absence of a confirmed NASA Administrator delays critical progress at a time when we can least afford it. Given the stakes, we urge the Senate Commerce Committee to prioritize and expedite Mr. Isaacman’s confirmation hearing. America’s competitive edge in space depends on having the right leader at the helm—and Jared Isaacman is that leader.”
What Happens Next?
Jared’s confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee has been scheduled for next week, Wednesday, April 9th at 10:00 AM EST. He will be questioned on various topics related to NASA, the NASA budget, getting back to the Moon and more. The hearing will be streamed live. Once confirmed, he’ll be sworn in by the Vice President. The timeline for after the confirmation is unknown, but Jim Bridenstine was sworn in five days after his confirmation, and Bill Nelson sworn in four days after his. If, for Jared, the timeline is the same, he will officially be the NASA Administrator in two weeks.
We are entering a new era at NASA, and Jared is leading it!