By Dr. Robert Zubrin, Unherd, Dec. 3, 2025
At the end of May, all looked lost for Jared Isaacman. The billionaire tech entrepreneur, a self-funded astronaut who had been lined up to run NASA, suddenly had his nomination pulled by Donald Trump. The President had just fallen out with Elon Musk, who had briefly been the “First Buddy”. Isaacman, whose trips into space had been via Musk’s company SpaceX, was collateral damage. Not only was Isaacman a “blue-blooded Democrat”, the President wrote in a fulminating social media post, it was also “inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA”.
Yet the President seems to have overcome his misgivings, for Isaacman has been re-awarded the nomination. Today, Isaacman will face the final hurdle, a Senate hearing. Senators are likely to quiz the entrepreneur, who has never worked for NASA, on his “Project Athena” report. In the report, which was leaked earlier this year, Isaacman called for NASA to retire its main rocket programme, the Space Launch System, to ruthlessly cut down on bureaucracy, to rely more on private enterprise, and to redirect its energies towards the exploration of Mars. Democrats are likely to be sceptical of some elements of Project Athena. As for the Republicans, Isaacman has evidently been on a charm offensive: donating $1 million to pro-Trump organisations, and giving at least one MAGA influencer a trip in his private jet.
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