Touch the Moon, move on to Mars?
Is NASA nominee beholden to Musk?
The stock market ride, tariffs, and retirement accounts have likely captured your attention the past couple of weeks. As you were watching graph lines go down, then up, then down again, the President’s nominee to run NASA faced Senators for his confirmation hearing and made a lot of news.
It appears big changes are coming to NASA and its plans for human exploration, especially of the Moon. Jared Isaacman said the Moon and Mars programs can move forward at the same time. “We don’t have to make a binary decision,” the technology CEO told the Senate committee.
He said the words, but I heard something much different and so did some of the Senators. Mars will be the priority for the new administration. It is also the priority for the man heading the Government Efficiency effort. His name is Elon Musk. More on that in a bit.
First, moving away from Moon plans would be another example of a Trump creation being tossed out for what the President now wants.
The Trump first-term plan was to go to the Moon to stay and learn how to survive and live in such a hostile environment. NASA wants a small space station called the Gateway orbiting the Moon and a habitat base on the surface. The lessons learned during this Artemis program would then be applied to go to Mars. Artemis, NASA believes, is the critical first step before what is known as “Moon to Mars.” Isaacman made it clear the Moon will no longer be that priority.
Isaacman calls himself a space enthusiast. He became a billionaire with his digital payments company Shift4. He’s used some of his money to buy SpaceX flights. He’s been to space twice and was able to poke the top of his torso out of a Dragon capsule. SpaceX called it a spacewalk.
Now Isaacman is carrying the Musk/Trump message of making Mars the target. In his opening statement before Senators he said, “We will prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars. Along the way, we will inevitably have the capabilities to return to the Moon…”
The four astronauts expected to be the first humans to orbit the Moon since Apollo were in the room listening. Isaacman said he is committed to their mission and the one following that would land astronauts on the lunar surface. But he made no commitment beyond those next two moon missions.
When he was asked directly if he supported the Congressionally mandated Artemis program, Isaacaman repeated he wants to see the next two missions completed but then asked, “Why has it taken so long? Why has it cost so much?”
Nominee Jared Isaacman is pressed on whether he supports NASA’s Artemis program to return and stay on the Moon. (Credit: U.S. Senate)
The rocket to take astronauts to the Moon is known as SLS. It is not reusable. Elon Musk is building a heavy-lift rocket called Starship. Will Isaacman support Artemis and SLS? “Senator, I believe that is the current plan,” is all he would say.
Isaacman was reminded by both Republican and Democrats on the committee that the law requires a presence in what is called cislunar orbit or on the lunar surface. Republican Ted Cruz said, “this stepping stone approach is the law as enacted by Congress. We must stay the course. An extreme shift in priorities at this stage would almost certainly mean a Red Moon - ceding ground to China for generations to come.”
Democrat Maria Cantwell pointed to reports that, “[the] Trump Administration was considering major changes to the Artemis program. You, too, have also made past statements about changes to the program.”
When pointedly asked by Sen. Cruz if he would maintain a sustained human presence in lunar orbit or on the surface, Isaacman finally conceded, “if that is the law, then I am committed to it.”
Now to the Musk in the room. Or was he in the room? Democratic Sen. Ed Markey pressed Isaacman hard on his connections to SpaceX owner Elon Musk. Markey said Isaacman has tens of millions of dollars invested in the Musk company. That he has paid SpaceX millions of dollars for his flights on the Dragon capsule and that his Shift4 company is the payment system for Musk’s satellite company Starlink. Markey also said it was Musk who wanted Isaacman as the next NASA Administrator.
With those suggestions of a conflict of interest, Markey asked directly if Musk was in the room when Isaacman was being interviewed by the President. The NASA nominee refused to say one way or the other, adding only, “my meeting was with the President of the United States.” He added that he was, “trying to be as transparent as possible.” Isaacman did acknowledge Musk was at Mar-a-Lago. When asked if he met with Musk he would only acknowledge that he ran into the SpaceX CEO, but, “I would not say we had a meeting.” The exchange is below.
With the slashes already made by the Government Efficiency effort at NASA and leaked reports that NASA Science efforts may be cut in half, it is hard to imagine how Isaacman can make Mars the priority and still satisfy Congress’ demand for the “stepping stone” missions to the Moon.
Isaacman is expected to be confirmed.