Behind The Black:
Capitalism in space: In a decision that is certain to send shock waves throughout NASA and the established aerospace industry, President-elect Donald Trump today announced that he has chosen billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to be his nominee for NASA administrator.
Isaacman quickly accepted the nomination.
Besides being a jet pilot with extensive experience in the aerospace industry, Isaacman has also commanded two space missions, financed out of his own pocket. Both missions used SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Resilience capsule. Both also pointedly avoided any involvement with NASA, spending several days in free Earth orbit instead of docking with ISS. The second mission achieved several major engineering milestones, testing the first privately built spacesuit during a spacewalk while also flying farthest from Earth since the 1970s Apollo missions. more here
Government shouldn’t be spending a single penny of stolen taxpayer dollars on “space.” Sounds like this guy scored the ultimate grift.
“In a decision that is certain to send shock waves throughout NASA and the established aerospace industry”
It needs it badly. Great pick.
@MrLiberty — It’s a two-part issue. Yes, govt shouldn’t be spending taxpayer dollars on space. And No, the govt shouldn’t put every conceivable obstacle in the way of private money being spent on space. Non-govt efforts find that the EPA, FAA, DOD, NSA, FCC, DOE, and the Dept. of State are all standing opposition. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.
I admire Elon Musk for making cracks in the govt anti-space wall, and find it satisfying that he’s done it with some of the govt’s “own” taxpayer money.
Here’s to Mr. Isaacman! Good luck to you!
Sounds like an excellent choice. I’ll pray for his success.
He’s not a religious person, but he’s got lots of time left in his life.
Future wars will be fought by weapons in space aimed at earth. But guv shouldn’t be involved in space?
Gee whiz someone who knows something about flying and space, what a novel concept. Next the govt. needs to get rid of permanently all the muzzies who were hired by obummer and joey to work at NASA as part of a pisslam outreach.
Gov shouldn’t be in space. Not because of the money. Because they suck at it. Does the government build F35’s?
I’ve machined a couple NASA jobs. Crazy process. They’ll take a complex part and have xyz machine shop machine one feature. Bring it back, inspect it, and send it out to zyx machine shop for the next feature. Repeat until done. Only the Government could come up with crazy ass process like that. Some parts took years to complete. That explains a lot.
Yes but is he DEI?
Because that always gets results.
Not good ones but results.
I hope he jettisons all the climate garbage from NASA
When it comes to using taxpayer money, Musk has used it pretty efficiently with actual results to show for it!
The federal government has paid SpaceX some $20 billion since 2008, mostly for for taking astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and resupplying it. Considering that Space X has a net worth of $350 billion, 20 B is less than 6%