Who Is Jared Isaacman? Elon Musk Ally Confirmed As 15th NASA Chief

The US Senate on Dec. 17 confirmed billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator, making him the space agency’s 15^th chief. The confirmation positions an outspoken advocate of Mars missions, and a former associate of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, at the helm of NASA.

The vote on Isaacman, who President Donald Trump removed and then re-nominated as NASA administrator this year, passed 67-30, reported Reuters.  

Isaacman will now lead an agency of around 14,000 employees. NASA is investing billions of dollars in its most ambitious space exploration programme yet, aimed at returning humans to the Moon to establish a long-term presence before eventually sending astronauts to Mars.

According to Forbes, Isaacman is worth an estimated $1.2 billion, as of Dec. 17, 2025. A BBC report said that he built his fortune through Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company he founded at the age of 16 in 1999. Born in Union, New Jersey, Isaacman dropped out of high school at 15 and later completed a GED, according to the Netflix docuseries Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space.

A year after leaving school, he launched Shift4 Payments from his parents’ basement, according to Forbes.

Isaacman’s interest in flying stretches back two decades. He began pilot lessons in 2004 and later set a world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light jet. In 2009, he also established a world speed record for flying around the Earth.

His aviation pursuits eventually extended into space. In 2021, Isaacman bankrolled and led the first all-civilian mission to orbit Earth, flying aboard a SpaceX capsule that launched from Florida and spent three days in space before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 2024, he became the first non-professional astronaut to conduct a spacewalk after funding the Polaris Dawn mission, which flew on a SpaceX rocket, reported the BBC.

Beyond payments and spaceflight, Isaacman founded defence firm Draken International in 2011, which trains Air Force pilots and owns the world’s largest fleet of privately owned military aircraft. In 2019, he sold a majority stake in the company to Wall Street firm Blackstone for a nine-figure sum, Forbes reported.

Forbes described Isaacman as a “thrill seeker” in a 2020 profile, adding that “for fun” he “bullets the MiG faster than the speed of sound and climbs mountains to unwind from nonstop, intense 80-plus-hour weeks.”

Isaacman is married and has two daughters. He lives with his family in New Jersey.