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Nominee flew twice aboard SpaceX rocketships to orbit

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Original nomination was withdrawn amid Trump-Musk feud

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Isaacman earned fortune from e-commerce venture Shift4

By Kanishka Singh and Steve Gorman

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald

Trump said on Tuesday he was re-nominating Jared Isaacman, the

private astronaut and ally of fellow billionaire and SpaceX

founder Elon Musk, for the post of NASA administrator, five

months after Isaacman's original nomination was withdrawn.

Isaacman, an e-commerce mogul who flew to orbit twice on

all-private astronaut missions as a customer and collaborator

with SpaceX, was removed from consideration to lead the space

agency in May amid a high-profile falling-out between Trump and

Musk. Sean Duffy, the head of the U.S. Department of

Transportation, was then named acting NASA chief.

"This evening, I am pleased to nominate Jared Isaacman, an

accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and

astronaut, as Administrator of NASA," Trump said on social

media. The role requires confirmation by the Senate, where

Trump's Republican Party holds a 53-47 majority.

Last year, Trump, as president-elect, tapped Isaacman to

lead NASA at the recommendation of Musk, the SpaceX chief

executive officer who had been an influential adviser to the

president and sought to more closely align the U.S. space

program with his goal of flying missions to Mars.

Isaacman, a billionaire investor and amateur jet pilot with

thousands of hours of flight time under his belt, had spent

months navigating the Senate confirmation process, balancing the

Musk and the Trump administration's desire to focus on Mars with

NASA's multibillion-dollar strategy to return astronauts to the

moon ahead of China in a geopolitical race to the lunar surface.

"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 into a bold new Era," Trump

wrote in his post.

Isaacman, founder and CEO of the financial transactions

service Shift4 Payments ( FOUR ), was the commander and chief

benefactor of the first all-private space crew to reach Earth

orbit in 2021. He led a four-member team of civilian rookie

astronauts aboard a SpaceX rocket vessel on a three-day mission

dubbed Inspiration4.

He returned to orbit in September 2024 with a follow-up

commercial voyage that he again bankrolled, leading another

quartet of private astronauts on a mission dubbed Polaris Dawn,

in which he joined a SpaceX engineer in conducting the world's

first private spacewalk.