Trump renominates Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator
Billionaire Jared Isaacman
President Donald Trump late yesterday announced that he has renominated billionaire Jared Isaacman as his nominee to become the administrator of NASA.
Just as Trump had given no reasons why he had withdrawn Isaacman’s nomination in late May, in his announcement yesterday Trump made no effort to explain why he had changed his mind.
One week ago I would have said that Isaacman’s nomination would proceed very quickly to a vote in the Senate, as he had already been vetted completely in the spring and was fully expected to be confirmed within days when Trump pulled the nomination. Now however I expect the Senate might want to bring Isaacman back for questioning in response to the leak this week of a policy paper he had written in the spring outlining his plans for NASA should he be approved.
That paper, still not released to the public, apparently contained a lot of specifics about Isaacman’s plans to reshape NASA that appeared to raise the hackles of the many swamp creatures in DC that live off the government trough. Isaacman addressed that leak in a very long and very detailed tweet yesterday that outlined in detailed but general terms what his goals were in that paper, and it could be his reasoning in this tweet that convinced Trump to renominate him. As Isaacman concluded:
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. It was written as a starting place to give NASA, international partners, and the commercial sector the best chance for long-term success. The more I see the imperfections of politics and the lengths people will go, the more I want to serve and be part of the solution… because I love NASA and I love my country
These speculations however are all worthless. As we really don’t know the exact reasons why Trump pulled the nomination in May, it is difficult to guess why Trump changed his mind now.
It will be interesting to see how the Senate responds to this new Trump decision.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Billionaire Jared Isaacman
President Donald Trump late yesterday announced that he has renominated billionaire Jared Isaacman as his nominee to become the administrator of NASA.
Just as Trump had given no reasons why he had withdrawn Isaacman’s nomination in late May, in his announcement yesterday Trump made no effort to explain why he had changed his mind.
One week ago I would have said that Isaacman’s nomination would proceed very quickly to a vote in the Senate, as he had already been vetted completely in the spring and was fully expected to be confirmed within days when Trump pulled the nomination. Now however I expect the Senate might want to bring Isaacman back for questioning in response to the leak this week of a policy paper he had written in the spring outlining his plans for NASA should he be approved.
That paper, still not released to the public, apparently contained a lot of specifics about Isaacman’s plans to reshape NASA that appeared to raise the hackles of the many swamp creatures in DC that live off the government trough. Isaacman addressed that leak in a very long and very detailed tweet yesterday that outlined in detailed but general terms what his goals were in that paper, and it could be his reasoning in this tweet that convinced Trump to renominate him. As Isaacman concluded:
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. It was written as a starting place to give NASA, international partners, and the commercial sector the best chance for long-term success. The more I see the imperfections of politics and the lengths people will go, the more I want to serve and be part of the solution… because I love NASA and I love my country
These speculations however are all worthless. As we really don’t know the exact reasons why Trump pulled the nomination in May, it is difficult to guess why Trump changed his mind now.
It will be interesting to see how the Senate responds to this new Trump decision.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
My assumption is that Trump got a lot of internal pushback, and was encouraged to go with the more conventional oldspace option. And I also assume that this was predicated on “you want our support, you need to support us.” And as usual, the support for Trump never materialized, and congress and all the usual suspects are sitting on their asses waiting for the revolving door and more money in their pockets, and Trump just said “I gave you your chance. You didn’t come through.”
I think it’s mainly a matter of Sergio Gor, who appears to have put the kibosh on Isaacman’s nomination after crossing swords with Elon in his previous job, now having a new job that puts him on the other side of the planet from DC.
Duffy seems to have very much wanted to keep the job, but made what now appears to be the error of throwing in with the NASA Lifers and the legacy contractors. Trump does not have what you would call a lot of respect for the business-as-usual types in and around government so that wasn’t a winning play.
Now there is a confirmation vote to get arranged or perhaps another confirmation hearing first. Given how disinclined the entire Congress seems to be to do its job these days, one cannot be overly optimistic about how long it might be before Isaacman can take the Big Chair at NASA.
I was on the fence about Isaacman, but now I see he is willing to listen to serious people (like our host, Casey Handmer, Elon et al.). That makes him a serious person too in my eyes.
Anything I have to say about Duffy’s deep thoughts on NASA is unfit for this site’s decorum so I’ll leave it to those serious people to say it, who can say it funnier anway.
Well, Bob Zubrin would just creep out kids visiting NASA, so….
Can we just have gravimetric engines and real-time Mars exploration or NOT? We KNOW that the US manned space program was “quietly” snuffed in 2011.
Hello Bob,
It’s possible. But given the sense that Trump is not a policy detail guy — certainly not in areas outside his own expertise, at any rate — I think that we must consider it was a more subjective, gut-level decision-making process. We know from multiple sources now (including Berger) that Trump apparently met multiple times with Isaacman in recent weeks, and Isaacman may have made an especially good impression on him, businessman to businessman.
And what Dick says about Sergio Gor points to the role that staff and friends may have played. Gor was no longer present to lobby against him again, but others in Trump’s circles may have made good arguments for him. The “last guy in the room” may have swung it.
Either way….I think we could have done much worse than Isaacman. I might disagree with him on certain points, and he has a steep learning curve to figure out the organizational rules and culture — he needs a good deputy and staff. We also are still not entirely sure how he will navigate congressional politics., which was the great strength of the last two administrators. But he’s not from the swamp, and he seems to be pointed generally in the right direction….and yeah, having been to orbit twice as a pilot and commander probably doesn’t hurt. Color me cautiously optimistic.
It might have been more interesting, as you say, to have seen him dive back into his Polaris program again. But maybe he can do some good with NASA.
Richard M: Based on numerous things Isaacman has written since his first nomination, and including many other things I have learned about him during that time, I remain unsure about what he will accomplish at NASA. I am therefore reserving judgment.
But, as you say, we could have done worse. Duffy started out well (reshaping the space station program in a good way), but then revealed his weaknesses, especially with his blind love for SLS/Orion.
My biggest hope from Isaacman is that he will look at that next manned SLS/Orion mission to the Moon, and decide it is too risky to fly manned. I suspect he might be the only man with the clout to make such a cancellation decision, considering he has flown in space himself twice. He can look stupid senators in the eye and tell them the truth, and they will have difficulty arguing with him.
From what I have heard (I don’t have time to dig back through my files just now, but perhaps tomorrow I can) the Commercial LEO Destinations overhaul had been in the works for a while; and it got an extra push from the Trump NASA transition team. Credit to Duffy for signing it, and doing it without delay; but it’s hard to know how much to really credit him for that.
But yes, otherwise, it’s best that Duffy is NOT the permanent administrator.
I share your hope! It would be a gutsy call, because he’s be pushing off a PR win on Trump’s watch, and that matters to the big guy, unfortunately. But making this an uncrewed test flight would be a far more prudent course of action. Cancelling the thing entirely would be a better one, but alas, Congress gets a very big say in that.