The White House thus confirmed a report by the “New York Times”, according to which Isaacman’s nomination was withdrawn. According to the newspaper, Trump found that Isaacman should have made donations to politicians from the Democratic Party and thus to his political rivals.
Trump commented on the personnel on his online platform Truth. “After a thorough review of previous connections, I hereby withdraw the nomination of Jared Isaacman for the management of NASA,” he wrote. He will soon announce a new candidate “who is suitable for the mission and will put America in space in space,” he added.
Isaacman is the founder of the SHIFT4 payment service and the Draken International Aviation Company for Military Services. The 42-year-old maintains close contacts with Trump’s recently resigned government advisor Elon Musk. With its space company SpaceX, Isaacman flown twice.
According to media reports, Musk is said to have worked as a NASA boss at Trump for Isaacman, who did important business with SpaceX, which had raised questions about a conflict of interest. “It is rare to find someone who is so competent and generous,” Musk now reacted to Isaacman in online service X to the communication of the White House.
After his nomination as NASA boss, Isaacman had already presented his plans in April. He wanted to “send American astronauts to Mars,” he said in a Senate hearing. At the same time, he spoke out for a “return to the moon”. The missions to Mars and the moon could run in parallel, he said.
This could “do almost impossible – which is exactly the reason why the American taxpayers finance NASA in the first place,” emphasized Isaacman at the time. Last September, he wrote history when he was the first non-professional astronaut to leave SpaceX from a Dragon World Cup capsule and completed the first privately financed space walk. The aim of the excursion was practical tests for high-tech room suits developed by SpaceX.
Trump had emphasized several times that the US flag should soon blow on Mars. Musk, head of his private space company SpaceX, which cooperates closely with the US government, initially strives for an unmanned Mars mission with a human-like robot from the end of 2026.
If this is successful, manned Mars missions could follow from 2029, “although in 2031 it seems more likely,” Musk announced in mid-March. It was only in December that NASA had postponed its plans for the first manned lunar landing to mid -2027 for more than 50 years.
After Trump’s took office in January, Musk was responsible for massive savings in the ministries and authorities. After four months as a special advisor of Trump, the Tech billionaire, who had supported the right-wing populist massively with millions in his election campaign, announced his retreat from the government a few days ago. On Friday he was passed publicly by Trump in the White House.
