Stuck in the Office

Billionaire Jared Isaacman has been to space twice. First, he commanded the first all-civilian mission to orbit in September 2021 on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Almost exactly three years later, he again rode the craft to orbit to become the first private astronaut to go on a spacewalk.

But the playboy space tourist may soon have to go on a hiatus from his privately-funded trips into orbit — because Isaacman was picked by president-elect Donald Trump, or perhaps his buddy Elon Musk, to become the next head of NASA.

The announcement catapulted the trained fighter jet pilot into the upper echelons of Washington, DC — which could force him to put his personal space travel ambitions on hold.

As part of the private Polaris program organized by Isaacman, the entrepreneur wanted to follow up his September spacewalk with two more trips on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon and eventually the company's much larger Starship.

"The future of the Polaris program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment," Isaacman told the audience of a space conference in Orlando, as quoted by Reuters. "It may wind up on hold for a little bit."

Spacefaring Kinda Guy

It's the first time Isaacman has made a public appearance since being appointed NASA administrator. As Reuters points out, the billionaire appeared highly optimistic about the future of the private space industry at the event but offered few clues on how we would lead NASA starting in January.

The 41-year-old is widely expected to further existing private-public partnerships, which could turn out to be a major windfall for SpaceX, which is already a major NASA contractor.

"At NASA, we will passionately pursue these possibilities and usher in an era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring civilization," Isaacman wrote in an announcement on X last week.

Where his new role will leave the Polaris program and SpaceX's other private astronaut partnerships with the likes of Axiom and Vast remains unclear.

In short, while it may not be him personally riding a spacecraft into space, given his new role in the Trump administration, SpaceX's space exploration ambitions almost certainly just got a major boost.

More on Isaacman: The New Head of NASA Had an Interesting Disagreement with the Space Agency

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Trump's New Billionaire Head of NASA Says He May Pause His Own Personal Vacations Into Space While Leading Agency