President-elect Donald Trump has nominated billionaire entrepreneur and adventurer Jared Isaacman to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Jared will drive NASA's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration. Over the past 25 years, as the Founder and CEO of Shift4, Jared has demonstrated exceptional leadership, building a trailblazing global financial technology company. He also co-founded and served as CEO of Draken International, a defense aerospace company, for over a decade, supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, and our Allies. Jared's passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new Space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA in a bold new Era. Congratulation to Jared, his wife Monica, and their children, Mila & Liv!

Isaacman founded his first company, now called Shift4, when he was 16, and the company was headquartered in his parents' basement. The company had revenue of $2.56 billion in 2023. He is a qualified pilot in high-performance aircraft. His company, Draken International, trains pilots for the United States and allied militaries. It has the world's largest private fleet of military aircraft and its own flight demonstration team, of which Isaacson is a member.

He currently holds the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light jet; in 2009, he beat the previous record by an astonishing 20 hours.

He will be the first NASA administrator to have actually traveled in space, twice, and completed a spacewalk. He was captain of the "Inspiration4," the first completely private spaceflight involving humans. None of the astronauts were government employees, and the spaceship and launch vehicle were from SpaceX. During that mission, he did a spacewalk. [Note: the current administrator, Bill Nelson, went into space as a tourist aboard the Columbia space shuttle while a member of Congress.]

Isaacman will probably change NASA's focus from global warming to "aeronautics and space." His close association with Musk will see NASA treating private space companies more as partners than rivals, if not enemies, to be crushed by federal paperwork. 

UPDATED: Added in reference to Bill Nelson's flight aboard the Columbia space shuttle while in Congress. 

UPDATED: Struck the sentence as Charles Bolden was a space shuttle crewmember before being NASA administrator. This is what happens when you think you know something but you don't.