Cool, let’s make NASA even more about capitalism instead of science, what could go wrong? And surely we won’t see NASA funding funneled off to SpaceX through shady contracts either. Ugh.
“He’s going to drain the swamp!”
“Trump’s pick for x: billionaire so and so”
“Trump’s pick for y: billionaire so and so”
“Trump’s pick for z: billionaire so and so”
“Trump’s pick for a: billionaire so and so”
“Trump’s pick for b: billionaire so and so”
“Trump’s pick for c: billionaire so and so”
Nic Cage would not appreciate your alphabetical filing
What can I say, I went through the American education system!
:P
Well, there goes NASA. So long and thanks for all the fish.
I highly doubt it. Maybe some enshitification, but NASA funding comes from Congress, and provides a LOT of jobs to a lot of different districts. Even in Republican-led legislators it has been funded at good levels, and Trump has repeatedly expressed the desire to return to the moon during his term.
I can’t stand orange man or rocket man, but they do seem to have a desire to return to a space age that is making some progress.
The dolphins are departing any moment now…
This is a quite inflammatory headline. Technically true, but it turns out Isaacman is a decent pick for NASA administrator. After all, he’s a real fighter jet pilot and astronaut who has performed multiple scientific missions in orbit.
Yeah, he’ll probably push for more commercial launch services. For example, he’s a big proponent of a Hubble service mission to fix the gyroscopes that are currently broken.
I predict substantial outsourcing to SpaceX. Good for Trump/Musk, not good for NASA.
I mean, outsourcing to SpaceX has been good for NASA so far, despite my distaste for Musk. The outsourcing to Boeing has been a shitshow.
A relationship between them without Trump and Musk in government has gone well. Once they both have their hands on the levers, I’m feeling it won’t be as similar as before. In addition, NASA provides an enormous amount of tools and data to the environmental and climate sciences, and I can’t imagine Trump will allow that to continue in its current form. I can only hope this guy will stand up to them if push comes to shove, like in Trump’s first administration.
Isaacman seems like he’s not the type to be bullied around by Trump or even Musk, based on everything I’ve seen. I’d anything he’s the one who has got THEM on a leash.
If I were to predict what would happen, I bet we see a Hubble service mission awarded to SpaceX, and lunar EVA suits awarded to SpaceX. I don’t think even the NASA administrator can touch SLS, so that keeps going as-is. Surely there will be a big push to get boots on the moon again before the next election, but I don’t think it’s likely to happen.
The problem is that people who stand up to Trump don’t last long. It’s far worse if Trump perceives he’s the one being controlled like he’s “on a leash”.
That’s why Trump had such a massive staff turnover in his first term. For example, over 90% of his original cabinet were fired or pressured out.
On top of that, many of Trump’s picks were imprisoned or indicted. So the odds aren’t good that his people will do the right thing.
It’s already looking to be far worse this time, especially given the corruption we’ve already seen from him since winning the election, and before he’s even in power.
TBF, it can hardly get worse. If we’re lucky Isaacman will have the guts to cancel SLS.
From what I’ve read he’s pretty critical of SLS. Most people are. It’s basically a sunk cost program at this point.
SpaceX is fine as long as they do what they do best. There isn’t exactly many options out there.
Idk how he got treated in training to become an astronaut as someone who was partially funding it (conflict of interest wise). Definitely has some insights into the internals of the program now
It’s blatantly obvious it’s just a pipeline to pour tax money into SpaceX.
a processing card company CEO
Another unqualified candidate!
