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Jared Isaacman
American entrepreneur, pilot, and commercial astronaut (born 1983) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jared Taylor Isaacman (born February 11, 1983) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, pilot, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of Shift4 Payments, a payment processor, and the founder of Draken International, which provides adversary training to the U.S., British, and other NATO air forces.[3] Through his leadership in private spaceflight, Isaacman has been credited with advancing competition in the space industry and reducing reliance on government programs.[4][5][6] As of May 2025, his estimated net worth is US$1.4 billion.[7][8]
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Isaacman commanded Inspiration4 – the first all-civilian spaceflight – using SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience which launched from Kennedy Space Center on September 16, 2021. He later led Polaris Dawn, during which he became the first private citizen to perform a spacewalk.[9]
In December 2024, President Donald Trump nominated him to serve as the 15th administrator of NASA.[10] During his April 2025 confirmation hearing, Isaacman emphasized his outsider status and entrepreneurial background, stating his intent to usher in a "new Golden Age of Science and Discovery" at the agency.[11] He faced questions over his close ties to Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, one of NASA's largest contractors.[12] On May 31, President Donald Trump, among several actions preceding his feud with Elon Musk, withdrew Isaacman's nomination to serve as NASA Administrator.[13]
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Early life
Isaacman was born on February 11, 1983, at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey, to Donald and Sandra Marie Isaacman.[14][15] He is the youngest of four children. His family lived in Union Township before moving to Westfield, New Jersey, around 1987, and later to the Liberty Corner section of Bernards Township when he was 12.[16]
He attended Wilson Elementary School in Westfield and William Annin Middle School in Bernards Township.[17] While a student at Ridge High School, he launched a computer services business with a friend. At age 16, he left school to work full-time, later earning a GED.[18] He received a bachelor's degree with a major in professional aeronautics from the fully online Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide Campus, in 2011.[19][20]
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Business career
In 1999, Isaacman founded United Bank Card, later renamed Harbortouch and then Shift4 Payments, a point-of-sale payments company. He has served as CEO since its inception. By 2015, the company was generating $300 million in revenue and processing $11 billion annually.[21] By 2020, it had scaled to $200 billion in payments per year.[3] In the same year, Isaacman took Shift4 public and began processing payments for SpaceX's satellite-internet business, Starlink.[22]
In 2012, Isaacman co-founded Draken International, a Florida-based defense aerospace company that operated one of the world’s largest fleets of privately owned fighter jets.[21][23] The company provided adversary training to U.S. military pilots and managed hundreds of millions in defense contracts, which Isaacman said saved taxpayers billions of dollars.[11]
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Aeronautics and astronautics
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Pilot
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Isaacman is flight-qualified in multiple military jet aircraft and has logged over 7,000 flight hours. He co-founded the Black Diamond Jet Team, in 2010, which performs at airshows.[23][24] He made two attempts to break the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light jet, achieving the record in 2009 with a time of 61 hours, 51 minutes, and 15 seconds—about 20 hours faster than the previous record.[21][25][26] He received the call sign "Rook" during fighter jet training.[27]
Private spaceflight
Inspiration4
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In February 2021, Isaacman announced he would command Inspiration4, the first orbital mission with no professional astronauts aboard. Operated by SpaceX using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, it launched on September 15, 2021, and orbited Earth for three days.[28][29][30][31] During the mission, Isaacman placed the first known sports bets from space.[32] The flight raised over $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a cause Isaacman championed throughout the mission.[11]
Polaris Dawn
In 2024, Isaacman led Polaris Dawn, the first mission in the privately funded Polaris Program.[33] The four-person crew reached a peak altitude of 1,400 km (870 mi), farther away from Earth than any human has gone since the last time Americans walked on the Moon, before lowering to 700 km (430 mi). On September 12, Isaacman and crewmate Sarah Gillis performed the first private extravehicular activity (EVA), becoming the first civilians to conduct a spacewalk, technically a Stand-up EVA (SEVA) as at no point did either crew-member fully exit the spacecraft.[34] Over the five-day flight, the crew conducted 40 science experiments and demonstrated Starlink laser-based communications in orbit.[35][32]
Administrator-nominee of NASA
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On December 4, 2024, Isaacman was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the 15th administrator of NASA, marking the first time a President-elect had named a nominee for the position before taking office.[4] His nomination was formally submitted on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025.[10] This made Trump both NASA's earliest and most-recent nominating president, following the September 2017 selection of Jim Bridenstine during his first presidency.
Isaacman's nomination received broad support from both political and aerospace circles. Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, received endorsements from 24 former astronauts, Alabama governor Kay Ivey, and a coalition of southern governors urging swift confirmation.[36] However, critics raised concerns about his ties to SpaceX and Elon Musk, fearing NASA might prioritize a Mars landing driven by SpaceX's ambitions at the expense of the Artemis mission to the Moon and other programs.[37] These concerns intensified following Musk's calls to decommission the International Space Station and for abandonment of lunar exploration in favor of accelerated Mars missions, statements that provoked sharp criticism from Cruz.[38]
In a March 12 letter to the Senate, Isaacman pledged to resign from his role at Shift4 and cancel the remaining Polaris Program missions if confirmed.[39] He reiterated this commitment during his April 9 confirmation hearing, and assured lawmakers that the Artemis and Commercial Lunar Payload Services programs would remain top priorities under his leadership.[40][41]
Over nearly three hours of testimony, Isaacman presented a vision of revitalizing NASA with a "mission-first" culture focused on efficiency, innovation, and strategic leadership in space. While expressing support for Artemis II and III using the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, he questioned the long timelines and high costs of these systems, pointedly asking, "Why is it taking us so long, and why is it costing us so much to go to the Moon?" Isaacman advocated for data-driven reviews of their future roles, signaling that they may not be viable long-term solutions for deep space exploration. He also pledged to extend the life of the ISS through 2030 and expand scientific output through public-private partnerships. Pressed by senators on restructuring, conflicts of interest, and the rationale for Mars exploration, Isaacman emphasized transparency, independence, and a dual-track approach to Moon and Mars.[41] Isaacman also opposed a proposal by the White House to cut 50% of NASA's science budget and 20% of their overall budget in 2026.[42]
When asked by Ed Markey about his ties to Musk, Isaacman denied that they were close, adding that he had not disclosed his plans for NASA to Musk, and that he had only been interviewed by Trump when offered the job.[43] However, when asked by Markey whether or not Musk was present at his interview with Trump, Isaacman refused to directly answer citing conflict-of-interest concerns.[44]
The committee also brought up an incident where Isaacman had been arrested at the Canadian border in 2010 for fraudulent checks, with Isaacman responding that he had resolved the issue and the charges were dropped. Court records also revealed that Isaacman had been sued four times for check fraud. Isaacman responded saying that the cases were resolved and that the behavior was in his past.[45]
Isaacman passed the Senate Committee vote 19–9 on April 30.[46]
On May 31, Semafor reported that the White House had withdrawn Isaacman's nomination.[13] Trump later stated that the withdrawal was due to Isaacman’s "prior associations", referring to his past political donations to Democratic candidates.[47] According to The New York Times, Trump had been aware of those donations during his presidential transition.[48] A White House spokesperson defended the decision, stating that it was "essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda". However Ars Technica reported that the withdrawal was a way to punish Elon Musk, as the decision came just days after he announced he would be pulling back from his role in the Trump Administration.[49]
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Personal life
Isaacman is Jewish, though he has stated he is not religious.[50] He is married to Monica Isaacman and has two daughters.[11] Isaacman has been a resident of Washington Township, New Jersey.[25]
See also
- Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space (2021 Netflix documentary series)
References
External links
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