\n<\/p>\n
On Wednesday U.S. senators told President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead NASA that the agency must beat China back to the moon. The uncertain future of science at the embattled space agency, meanwhile, took a back seat at the confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman.<\/p>\n
NASA is at \u201can inflection point,\u201d said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which held the hearing. \u201cThe agency must prioritize if we\u2019re to beat China back to the moon\u2014and then to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renominated by Trump in November, Isaacman, age 42, has twice flown to space via the company SpaceX, including in a 2024 mission that saw him perform the first-ever commercial space walk. The billionaire entrepreneur\u2019s provisional \u201cProject Athena\u201d plan for NASA, leaked in November, called for smaller, more numerous science missions, a reorganization of the agency\u2019s research centers and a hard push for nuclear-electric rockets for future human voyages to Mars.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere is no question the overwhelming near-term priority is to return American astronauts to the moon,\u201d Isaacman said at the hearing, expressing support for both a proposed Lunar Gateway space station and the next four crewed missions planned for NASA\u2019s Artemis lunar landing program. That\u2019s despite calls in the Trump administration\u2019s proposed 2026 federal budget to cancel Gateway and to end NASA\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS), a rocket that would enable those missions. (Isaacman\u2019s Project Athena document also reportedly proposed canceling the SLS, which is estimated to cost a whopping $2 billion per launch.)<\/p>\n
Isaacman also endorsed a reopened competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin for the 2028 Artemis III moon landing, a mission intended to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. Former space agency officials have raised serious doubts that NASA can meet that deadline. If the schedule slips, so, too, could NASA\u2019s chances of winning the new moon race with China; Beijing has targeted 2030 for its own crewed lunar landing.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the hearing, 36 former NASA astronauts, including former NASA chief Charles Bolden, Jr., endorsed Isaacman\u2019s nomination, saying \u201che will bring renewed energy and sense of purpose to NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNASA needs a leader,\u201d says Syracuse University political scientist W. Henry Lambright, a scholar of space agency history. \u201cHe comes across as technically strong. I do not know if he is politically astute.\u201d Isaacman\u2019s proposed philosophy of \u201caccelerate\/fix\/delete\u201d to streamline programs at NASA echoes the \u201cfaster, better, cheaper\u201d ethos of 1990s NASA chief Dan Goldin, Lambright adds. That era foundered on the costly losses of multiple Mars probes.<\/p>\n
Still, Isaacman faces constraints from the Trump administration\u2019s powerful Office of Management and Budget, which is intent on slashing federal science spending, and \u201can unpredictable president,\u201d Lambright says. \u201cHe needs Congress to be on his side. \u2018Accelerating\u2019 and \u2018fixing\u2019 as themes make sense in this respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday Isaacman told senators that a U.S. failure to beat China to the moon would undermine \u201cAmerican exceptionalism\u201d but that it also held more concrete geopolitical ramifications. The moon, he said, offers resources such as potential helium-3 deposits, which might someday serve as nuclear fusion fuel and \u201ccould change the balance of power\u201d on Earth in the next century.<\/p>\n
Despite the hearing\u2019s overall genial tone, Isaacman did face some tough questions about his support for NASA\u2019s climate science and agricultural data missions, which the Project Athena plan reportedly proposed outsourcing to academia. \u201cWe only inhabit one planet, and Earth science is pretty vitally important,\u201d Isaacman responded. He also endorsed NASA funding for early-career scientists and for university-based research\u2014two areas that the Trump administration has targeted for deep cuts.<\/p>\n
Some of the most pointed queries Isaacman fielded concerned a proposed nearly 50 percent cut to science at NASA (rejected by Congress in budget decisions) and his relationship with Elon Musk, whose SpaceX rockets sent Isaacman into space on two private missions. \u201cI more than acknowledge I went to space twice with SpaceX,\u201d said Isaacman, who downplayed his connection with Musk, adding that he had not spoken to the tech billionaire about the NASA job since Isaacman was renominated for it. Isaacman also declined to reveal how much his private space missions cost other than to say that SpaceX \u201cdidn\u2019t give me a discount.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isaacman said at the outset of the hearing he did not intend to \u201cclose centers\u201d at NASA. The space agency currently operates 10 such research centers across the country, and some NASA missions involve contributions from several; the Project Athena document reportedly suggested privatizing some of that work, as well as consolidating some agency initiatives into single space centers. That could lead to less federal money flowing to some of NASA\u2019s most scientifically prized and productive parts, such as the agency\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland\u2014both of which have suffered extensive layoffs and other disruptions linked to the White House\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n
The fate of the space shuttle Discovery, now at a Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum, went unmentioned in the hearing, with this summer\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act calling for $85 million to move the orbiter to a Houston showplace. Senator Cruz is one of the prime movers behind what some critics have described as the \u201cheist\u201d of the venerable shuttle, which some experts fear would suffer irreparable damage in the proposed relocation. Cruz\u2019s Texas colleague, Senator John Cornyn, claimed in a news release ahead of the hearing that Isaacman had endorsed the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hearing was generally what I expected,\u201d says space policy expert Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society. Despite some tough questions, Isaacman emphasized his commitment to NASA science and other popular programs, Dreier says. \u201cHe\u2019s in the difficult position of having to avoid overt critiques of the proposed budget, which is the official position of the administration he hopes to join but something that he had no part in preparing,\u201d Dreier adds.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Isaacman seems to be on track for confirmation, given that Cruz\u2019s committee has already queued up a vote for him next Monday. With the U.S. Senate rapidly running out of working days before the Christmas holiday, Dreier says, \u201cthe challenge will be if they can vote on his nomination before the new year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note (12\/3\/25): This article was edited after posting to correct descriptions of Jared Isaacman\u2019s exact comments during the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday U.S. senators told President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead NASA that the agency must beat China back to the moon. The uncertain future of science at the embattled space agency, meanwhile, took a back seat at the confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman. NASA is at \u201can inflection point,\u201d said Senator Ted Cruz of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[994,689,20153,18687,5768,1883,1314],"class_list":{"0":"post-35910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-answers","9":"tag-chief","10":"tag-grilling","11":"tag-isaacman","12":"tag-jared","13":"tag-nasas","14":"tag-senate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}