Musk Ally, Space Traveller to Run NASA in Boon to SpaceX

Even when you’re the richest man in the world, it helps to have friends in high places.

On Wednesday Elon Musk’s friend President-elect Donald Trump, who is soon to occupy the highest office in the land, tapped another of Musk’s billionaire allies, entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, to run NASA, the highest office out of this world.

Star Bromance

The announcement made a splash because tech entrepreneur Isaacman was part of the first all-civilian crew to reach orbit on a private space mission and later participated in the first commercial spacewalk. If he’s confirmed to run NASA, the private-sector space explorer will take over the world’s largest aeronautics and space body, a $25 billion public-sector behemoth with 18,000 employees.

Both of Isaacman’s private space missions, as it happens, were carried out by Musk’s SpaceX. Like almost all commercial space firms, SpaceX depends on contracts from taxpayer-funded government bodies to exist as a going concern. That tension could add to the gravitational pull being felt by SpaceX rivals like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Boeing thanks to Musk’s high standing with the incoming administration. “Everybody in the space industry is worried about Elon’s influence right now,” Charles Miller, a former NASA official who worked on its planning for Trump’s first transition, told Politico last month:

• SpaceX has indeed received roughly $19.8 billion in federal contracts since 2008, including $3.8 billion in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the database of federal contracts at USAspending.gov. That’s helped propel the company to insider negotiations that could make it, at $350 billion, the world’s most valuable startup.
• Isaacman, of course, is still his own man: shares in Shift4, the payment-processing firm he founded and leads, fell 12% on Wednesday at the prospect of losing a leader. He’d also bring his own personal experience of government contracting and flight equipment: he previously cofounded Draken International, a private air force provider that contracts with the US military.

Staying Grounded: Despite concerns, there was no immediate, drastic movement from publicly traded firms with skin in the space game: the ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF rose 2% Wednesday. The Procure Space ETF was little changed. Bezos’ Blue Origin, like SpaceX, is privately held. Boeing shares were up 2%, though the firm may not even be around in the sector for long—it’s reportedly considering selling its marquee space division, which has been humbled by SpaceX having to step in to bring home two astronauts its Starliner was supposed to return from the International Space Station.