SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This week, President-elect Donald Trump tapped tech and aerospace billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman has been to space twice, and in his most recent trip in September, he became the first civilian to carry out a spacewalk. I spoke with him on the show a few days after that.
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DETROW: I want to end going back to that spacewalk. What was the biggest difference between what you thought it would be like and what it was actually like?
JARED ISAACMAN: Earth looked certainly beautiful, just as you would expect. But then looking out into the darkness of space, it was a very unwelcoming feeling that this is a threatening environment for humans. We certainly didn’t evolve to be here, and if we want to be here, we’re going to have to work really hard in order to kind of open up this last frontier. That was kind of one of the big takeaways I had.
DETROW: If he is confirmed, Isaacman would head NASA at a key but also precarious moment. The agency is trying to return to the moon, among other things, but this week once again saw delays on that project. And, of course, there is Elon Musk and SpaceX hovering above it all. For more on Isaacman’s nomination and the Trump administration’s plans for space, I am joined by – NPR’s space guy, I guess – NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel. Thanks for being here again.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Hi, Scott. Good to be with you.
DETROW: So remind us who Isaacman is, and how does one become a self-funded astronaut?
BRUMFIEL: Yeah. Well, Isaacman is an entrepreneur first and foremost. He started his first company at 16. He eventually went on to build an online payment platform called Shift4, which he still runs. And he’s also always wanted to be a pilot and an astronaut, so he actually started flying fighter jets in his 20s, and he founded another company called Draken that actually trained military pilots to fly jets. And then he got in touch with SpaceX, and, as you said, he funded these two private missions into orbit. He won’t say how much he paid, but it was probably a lot.
DETROW: Yeah. How common is that for a NASA administrator?
BRUMFIEL: The outgoing administrator, Bill Nelson – he’s also been to space. He did it when he was in the House of Representatives. He traveled up aboard the space shuttle. The difference here, of course, is that Isaacman has done it completely privately, and he’s only gone on SpaceX’s spacecraft.
DETROW: OK, so this comes at a time when Donald Trump seems to be spending every waking moment with Elon Musk, who heads SpaceX, right? So there’s this broader question here of what this nomination means for private space flight and NASA. What are you thinking?
BRUMFIEL: I mean, I think that is the big question. I think the question isn’t really so much about private space flight generally but SpaceX in particular. I mean, NASA is already very reliant on SpaceX. SpaceX gives its only ride to the space station currently. SpaceX has already gained billions in contracts from NASA, and NASA’s very heavily dependent on it. It seems like under Isaacman’s leadership, that could grow. You know, some people want to see NASA seek other companies to help it. But here’s what Isaacman said on CNBC’s closing bell last month.
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ISAACMAN: It’s almost been, like, controversial to give contracts to the company that has the best product at the lowest cost, in SpaceX. Like, you almost had to throw money away on alternative vendors just to appear not to be too Elon friendly.
BRUMFIEL: So he clearly has no problem giving more money to SpaceX. I should also say he’s a friend of Elon’s. His company Shift4 has invested in SpaceX and holds a five-year deal to manage payments for its Starling satellite network. And he also told the Wall Street Journal, he has direct equity in SpaceX. So it seems like SpaceX could become even more central to NASA’s plans.
DETROW: Any sense what other changes Isaacman could make at NASA? I mentioned before, there’s a lot of projects going on, but a lot of them are up in the air, as it will.
BRUMFIEL: Yeah, I mean, I think the big question here is around the Artemis mission to the moon. You know, currently, Artemis is supposed to launch on this giant rocket. It’s a government-built rocket. It’s years behind schedule, and as you mentioned, it was just delayed again. I think Isaacman may try and kill that program and put the money towards a rocket SpaceX developing called Starship. Starship is already set to land on the surface of the moon, but it isn’t the chosen vehicle to take astronauts there. So I could imagine Isaacman would try to switch things around to make Starship the primary vehicle to go to the moon.
Now, it’s not all just about Musk, though. I do want to say, Isaacman really does care about space flight. He really does care about science. He actually intervened on behalf of an X-ray telescope that was going to be closed recently, and he wanted to fly to the Hubble space telescope to try and save that one as well. Now, NASA rejected that mission, but I think, you know, Isaacman really cares about what NASA does, and that’s important.
DETROW: Yeah. Last question – he had had this whole series of private space missions planned. Has he said whether those are on pause, or what happens next?
BRUMFIEL: I haven’t seen any comments from him about that. It’s hard to imagine that the NASA administrator would fly to space with all the work he’s got to do on the ground.
DETROW: Fair point.
BRUMFIEL: You know, anything could happen in this administration.
DETROW: That’s NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel. Thanks so much.
BRUMFIEL: Thank you.
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