WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped Jared Isaacman to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Isaacman, CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments , has been a close associate of Elon Musk and his space company SpaceX for years and leads Polaris, a program using SpaceX vehicles to conduct private astronaut missions in orbit.
“Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Isaacman, if confirmed, would oversee a $25 billion agency heavily focused on returning humans to the moon under its Artemis program, a multibillion dollar effort promoted by Trump during his first term that will rely on SpaceX’s Starship.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Doina Chiacu; editing by Caitlin Webber)
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