Jared Isaacman, the original and now resubmitted Trump administration nominee to lead NASA, told senators Wednesday that lunar-focused missions are critical to “national security value on the lunar surface.”
Mr. Isaacman’s appearance before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee comes after his initial removal by President Trump as a nominee.
Much of Wednesday’s discussion revolved around NASA projects that affect national security, including the Artemis campaign to explore the moon.
“NASA cannot take its eyes off the ball,” said committee Chairman Ted Cruz, Texas Republican.
He sees the U.S. as competing with China in what he and others called a “new space race.” That includes plans for Gateway, a space station orbiting the moon.
“The United States must remain the unquestioned leader in space exploration,” Mr. Cruz said.
“There is no question the overwhelming near-term priority is to return American astronauts to the moon again,” Mr. Isaacman said. “And establish an enduring presence on what is a very scarce piece of real estate that we’re interested in.”
Mr. Isaacman said the goal in winning the race to the moon against “our great rival” — China is also aggressively pursuing its own ambitious lunar programs — is to “establish an enduring presence to understand and realize the scientific, economic and national security value on the lunar surface.”
“China’s progressing at a breakneck pace to overtake our space infrastructure and beat us back to the moon,” said Sen. Tim Sheehy, Montana Republican. “They fully intend to win.”
Mr. Sheehy and Mr. Isaacman have spent significant time with each other, even going to the same summer space camp as children. But, that didn’t offer much levity to Mr. Sheehy’s line of questioning, which emphasized the importance of the U.S. support for low-earth orbit satellites and GPS infrastructure, saying “our entire life revolves around an orbital economy.”
Mr. Isaacman, often described as a “billionaire spacewalker,” was originally removed by Mr. Trump from his nomination as director of NASA. The tech entrepreneur has gone into orbit twice with SpaceX, including being involved in the first private spacewalk while orbiting further from the surface than both the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, at a peak of 875 miles above the Earth. That mission ended a five-day trip that took Mr. Isaacman further from Earth than all but NASA’s moonwalkers.
Now, Mr. Isaacman is on board with the bipartisan push to see the U.S. return to that lunar surface.
“Our foreign policy and wars have been fought for a century over sources of power” Mr. Isaacman said, noting that the helium-3 on the surface of the moon is predicted to be a more efficient source of fusion power. “To get that wrong could have implications here on Earth that could change the balance of power.”
Mr. Trump originally pulled Mr. Isaacman’s nomination citing his “prior associations” and said he would choose a different director for the space agency.
Mr. Isaacman has made political donations to Democratic candidates, and his appearance of association with SpaceX founder Elon Musk were both reported as causes for concern from the White House this past spring.
Democrats asked Mr. Isaacman to explain his connection to Mr. Musk and his donations of “roughly $2 million to President Trump’s administration.”
Mr. Isaacman said he made donations to charitable causes of nearly “30 times that amount” around the same times as his political contributions.
And he said his relationship with Mr. Musk is no different than the one NASA has with the billionaire entrepreneur and previous Trump adviser.
Mr. Isaacman said his relationship is based almost exclusively around “the fact that I had led two missions to space” with SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s company, and that SpaceX is one of the few “organizations that can send astronauts to and from space.”
Mr. Isaacman wouldn’t specifically address whether Mr. Musk was in the room with him when Mr. Trump offered him the job, saying instead that “dozens of people” were “moving in and out” of the meetings he had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Isaacman’s nomination will be before the Senate as a whole in coming months.
