U.S. News: NASA Pick Wants to Pursue Mission To Mars

 

"President Trump's nominee to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said he would push to send astronauts to Mars and return America to the moon.

Jared Isaacman said at his Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing that he would support the Mars initiative, a challenging mission that has been promoted by President Trump, while also advancing the long-delayed Artemis moon-landing program.

"We don't have to make a binary decision of the moon versus Mars, or the moon has to come first versus Mars," he said. "I think we could be paralleling these efforts."

Isaacman, a 42-year-old aerospace entrepreneur who flew on private space missions with SpaceX in 2021 and 2024, described a Mars mission as a priority. He also said he wanted to maintain use of the International Space Station.

"We need to make the most use of the space station while we have it," Isaacman said.

Some of his remarks clash with positions that Trump adviser and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken, such as retiring the space station sooner than NASA's plan to bring the facility down around 2030. SpaceX is a key contractor at NASA and other federal agencies.

Trump has said that the U.S. would "plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond," though he recently said going to Mars wasn't his first priority.

The Senate committee is expected to vote on Isaacman's nomination later this month." [1]

1.  U.S. News: NASA Pick Wants to Pursue Mission To Mars. Niiler, Eric; Maidenberg, Micah.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Apr 2025: A2.