President Trump renominates commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator

In a move that will feel like déja vu, President Donald Trump nominated commercial astronaut and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA Administrator, less than six months after he had pulled Isaacman’s initial nomination for largely political reasons.

The President made the announcement on his social media site, Truth Social, on Tuesday evening.

“Jared’s passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new Space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new Era,” Trump wrote.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Isaacman will take over the leadership role from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has served in the role as an acting administrator since July.

In his own social media post, Isaacman thanked Duffy for his time in the acting administrator role and thanked those in the space community who continued to push for the President to reconsider Isaacman since his name was withdrawn initially.

“And to the best and brightest at NASA, and to all the commercial and international partners, we have an extraordinary responsibility–but the clock is running,” Isaacman wrote in part on X. “The journey is never easy, but it is time to inspire the world once again to achieve the near-impossible–to undertake and accomplish big, bold endeavors in space…and when we do, we will make life better here at home and challenge the next generation to go even further.”

Representatives of notable space companies were quick to congratulate Isaacman on social media for his renomination to the role Wednesday evening.

“Congrats @rookisaacman!!! @SpaceX is ready to serve,” wrote Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of Launch. “Together we will keep pushing the boundaries of space exploration!”

“Congrats Jared! We look forward to working with you,” wrote Dave Limp, Blue Origin CEO.

“The Commercial Space Federation (CSF) applauds the nomination of Jared Isaacman @rookisaacman to serve as NASA Administrator,” wrote the Commercial Space Federation. “As China seeks to challenge American space superiority at every turn, Jared has the vision, experience, and grit – the ‘right stuff’ – to lead NASA during this critical time.”

What happened?

Earlier in the year, Isaacman seemed to be on track to become the 15th Senate-confirmed NASA Administrator. Trump announced Isaacman would be nominated for the position in December 2024, more than a month before Trump was sworn into office.

Isaacman sat before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee for his confirmation hearing in April and that group voted 19-9 to advance his nomination to a full vote of the Senate later that month.

But in the weeks that followed, there was a very public back and forth between Trump and Elon Musk one of the President’s biggest political donors and the founder of SpaceX. The President asserted that “it was inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the space business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life.”

When he announced the withdrawal of Isaacman’s nomination back on May 31, Trump said he would “soon announce a new nominee who will be mission aligned and put America first in space.”

Instead, he tapped Duffy to be NASA Administrator on an interim basis, taking over from Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro, who temporarily led the agency from Trump’s inauguration in January until July 9.

There has been a consistent chorus of support for Isaacman in the months since his nomination was withdrawn. Isaacman was also present at a White House dinner in early September, which featured more than a dozen tech executives, like Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Just hours before Trump’s announcement online, Isaacman penned a lengthy post on X defending a document called “Athena”, an outline of how he’d planned to bring about his vision for NASA during his tenure.

A 62-page version of this document was reportedly leaked to multiple members of the press. Isaacman said the full plan is in excess of 100 pages and was “always intended to be a living document refined through data gathering post-confirmation.”

He said the plan focused on five main priorities, which can be read in full here:

• Reorganize and empower
• American leadership in the high ground of space
• Solving the orbital economy
• NASA as a force multiplier for science
• Investing in the future

“This plan never favored any one vendor, never recommended closing centers, or directed the cancellation of programs before objectives were achieved. The plan valued human exploration as much as scientific discovery,” Isaacman wrote. “It was written as a starting place to give NASA, international partners, and the commercial sector the best chance for long-term success.”

What happens next?

If confirmed, Isaacman will step into the NASA Administrator role just months ahead of the launch of the Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed launch of that program.

There’s also the matter of the Artemis 3 architecture. In the midst of the shutdown, Duffy called for both Blue Origin and SpaceX to submit expedited plans for how to land humans on the Moon before the end of Trump’s second term in office, which ends on Jan. 20, 2029.

NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said last week in a statement that the plans were under evaluation.

“NASA has received and will be evaluating plans from both SpaceX and Blue Origin for acceleration of HLS production. Following the shutdown, the agency will issue an RFI to the broader aerospace industry for their proposals,” Stevens wrote. “A committee of NASA subject matter experts will be assembled to evaluate each proposal and determine the best path forward to win the second space race given the urgency of adversarial threats to peace and transparency on the Moon.”

In addition, with the ongoing budget battle on Capitol Hill, the matter of the President’s budget request will likely be high on the priority list for members of the Senate Commerce committee during his nomination hearing.

It’s unclear when Isaacman will have a new nomination hearing.