Jared Isaacman: What went wrong at NASA | The All-In Interview
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Who is Jared Isaacman?
Jared Isaacman was nominated by President Trump to become the 15th administrator of NASA in December. He passed out of the Senate committee in May and was set to be confirmed by the full Senate this week. However, on Friday, President Trump withdrew his nomination for Isaacman. We asked Jared to sit down with us for a conversation. We dive into everything, his experiences as a successful entrepreneur, fighter jet pilot, commander of the world's first all-civilian spaceflight, and the first civilian to conduct a spacewalk, what he saw in his six months studying NASA, how American government bureaucracy has eroded its performance and puts the nation at risk in the great space race underway with China.
And what really happened? Was it a discovery about prior donations to Democratic candidates or an association with Elon Musk that lost him the nomination? Here's my conversation with Jared Isaacman.
I'm going all in. All right, besties. I think that was another epic discussion. People love the interviews. I could hear him talk for hours. Absolutely. We crushed your questions. Admit it. We are giving people ground truth data to underwrite your own opinion. What'd you guys think? That was fun. That was great.
Jared, welcome. I, like many space enthusiasts, was thrilled for your nomination to lead NASA as the 15th administrator of the agency. Founded in 1958, the year after the Russians put Sputnik into orbit, NASA's perhaps, in my opinion, the US government's most pioneering agency, having organized and led our exploration missions to the moon, Mars, the outer solar system, and beyond. as well as the launch of important scientific missions to observe the Earth, to observe our solar system and the deep universe, and of course, the installation and operation of the ISS. And you seemed really qualified for the job as a business manager, a successful entrepreneur, flight and space enthusiast. So I'm really curious to hear your views on NASA, the space industry overall, the race with China, and frankly, hear a little bit about what the heck just happened with your nomination. A lot of people have a lot of questions that we'd love to hear your point of view on. So I thank you for joining me today, Jared.
I'm thrilled to be here to chat. And as someone who's been a space enthusiast since kindergarten, whether it's through the lens of commercial space or, you know, the great space race from the 1960s or NASA of today, like these are all subjects I get pretty charged up about. So love to chat about it.
What inspired you to get into space? You went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and you later became an entrepreneur, but were you always kind of obsessed with space and did you always dream of doing what you got to do last year, which was walk in space?
Yeah, so this is all my parents' fault. They skimped out on a babysitter as a kid and just put me in front of the TV. So I was watching movies like Top Gun, The Right Stuff, Space Camp, the movie, you know, 1980s movie where if you go to space camp, a robot's going to launch you into space. This was all stuff in like my elementary school years.
So, I mean, I just showed it to my kids last week, by the way. So funny that you say that. I pulled up Space Camp. I had to buy it. Because it's not on any of the streaming services to show it to my kids. Yeah.
Okay. I've been to space camp to like speak to the students a number of times. And I asked him like, all right, raise your hands if you've seen the movie Space Camp here and know who Jinx is. And like no one raises their hand. And that just goes to show I'm old.
So you were always into it. Is that what you wanted to do to work in aeronautical engineering or as a pilot or what were you thinking of doing?
Yeah, I mean, so kind of interesting start to the story. I mean, I started my day job, which is shift for, you know, it's a pretty large fintech now when I was 16. And I was just like most, you know, as you know, entrepreneurs, you're burning yourself out waking up on the keyboard. And, you know, I said, I need a hobby in life. So I picked up my passion for flying.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Jared Isaacman?
0:00–4:46
2
What led to Jared's nomination to lead NASA?
4:46–8:50
3
What are the major issues at NASA?
8:50–12:57
4
How does NASA's budget impact its missions?
12:57
5
What is the space race with China?
8:50
6
How did Jared's background influence his space career?
0:18–16:20
7
What was the inspiration behind the Inspiration4 mission?
16:20–38:42
8
What needs to change at NASA for future success?
38:42–1:00:32
Speakers
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