Billionaire highlights Mars trip for astronauts in bid to become NASA's next chief

The nominee for NASA's top job is outlining his vision for space exploration

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The nominee for NASA’s top job, billionaire spacewalker Jared Isaacman, outlined his vision for space exploration on Wednesday that prioritizes sending astronauts to Mars.

President Donald Trump nominated Isaacman to become NASA’s 15th administrator late last year. If confirmed, the tech entrepreneur would become the youngest person to lead the space agency that is eyeing returning astronauts to the moon and among only a handful of administrators to have actually rocketed into orbit.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee gathered in Washington for the nomination hearing.

“As the president stated we will prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars. Along the way, we will inevitably have the capabilities to return to the Moon, Isaacman said in his written testimony.

Isaacman, 42, has already flown in space twice, buying his own trips with SpaceX, and performed the world’s first private spacewalk last September. He made his fortune with a payment processing company he started as a high school dropout in his parents’ basement, now called Shift4.

He acknowledged in his testimony that he is not “a typical nominee for this position.”

“I have been relatively apolitical; I am not a scientist and I never worked at NASA" he said in his written remarks. “I do not think these are weaknesses.”

The space agency and others were anxious to hear Isaacman’s stand on the moon and Mars for human exploration, given his close association with SpaceX’s Elon Musk.

In the audience were the three U.S. astronauts and one Canadian assigned to NASA’s flight to the moon planned for next year.

NASA has been pitching the moon as the next logical step for astronauts for years. The Artemis program aims to send a crew around the moon next year and land astronauts near the moon’s south pole as early as 2027. Lunar bases are planned this time around, not just quick visits like the ones during NASA’s Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Artemis has been slow going and expensive, especially for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. It’s only blasted off once so far — in 2022 without a crew.

Musk favors Mars as a destination, as he ramps up more test flights out of Texas for Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket. By making Starship reusable, he intends to dramatically lower costs of getting people and equipment to the red planet.

NASA has chosen Starship for its first two astronaut landings on the moon under Artemis, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.

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