Jared Isaacman isn’t just a billionaire CEO. He’s also a SpaceX astronaut and financier — and now he’s going to lead NASA in the new space race.
The Shift4 founder and high school dropout was confirmed as the new administrator of the US space agency by the Senate on Wednesday, after a tumultuous process in which his nomination was temporarily derailed during Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s falling out.
Last December, Trump announced he was nominating Isaacman to be the new NASA administrator, but the US president rescinded the nomination in May, shortly before his disagreement with Musk.
In a Truth Social post in July, Trump said he withdrew Isaacman’s nomination because of his previous support for the Democratic Party, and because he was too close to Musk. However, Trump renominated Isaacman for the top NASA job in November, after an apparent thawing in his feud with Musk.
Isaacman has flown to space twice aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, on flights he commissioned, funded, and commanded — including a mission where he conducted the first-ever commercial space walk in September.
So who is Jared Isaacman, and how did the entrepreneur end up on Trump’s radar?
Read on to learn about his career rise.
Isaacman dropped out of high school at the age of 15.
At the age of 15, Isaacman decided to drop out of high school and take the GED, according to the Netflix docuseries “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space.”
“I was a horrible student,” Isaacman said in the series. “And I wasn’t, like, happy in school, either.”
He described his younger self as independent and said he didn’t understand things like raising your hand to go to the bathroom.
At 16, he founded a multibillion-dollar payment-processing company in his parents’ basement.
Isaacman founded United Bank Card in 1999.
The company, now called Shift4, offers mobile-payment software, point-of-sale solutions, and online payments for various businesses.
Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that when he started the company, he would wake up every day at 7:30 a.m. and fall asleep on the keyboard at 2 or 3 in the morning.
By 2020, he took the company public. Today, Shift4 processes over $260 billion annually and serves over 200,000 customers, according to its website.
Isaacman has a wife and two kids.
Isaacman has known his wife, Monica Isaacman, for most of his life. The two come from the same town and got married in 2012. They now live in Pennsylvania with their two daughters.
“I want my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars,” Isaacman told Business Insider.
His wife said in the docuseries that she had good and bad dreams leading up to his first SpaceX mission, Inspiration4, which launched in 2021.
She said while she wouldn’t want him to compromise on his dreams of going to space, she worried about what could happen if something went wrong.
Isaacman told Business Insider in the interview that his family and wife were much more enthusiastic about the Polaris Dawn mission this time around, thanks to a successful first mission.
While there are still risks, he told Business Insider his family is aware and accepts them.
He also founded Draken International.
Isaacman founded Draken International in 2012. The company is a private aircraft provider that also trains pilots for the US military, the UK, and NATO countries.
In 2019, Isaacman sold the company to Blackstone.
Isaacman became a billionaire in 2019.
Isaacman hit billionaire status in 2020 after selling Draken International and taking Shift4 public. His net worth is estimated at $1.1 billion, according to Forbes.
He always had a passion for flying planes.
Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that he took an early interest in flying and went to flight school at a local airport in 2004.
At the time, he was feeling burned out from starting his company and described flying as “therapeutic.” Isaacman also set a world speed record for flying around the globe in 2009.
“I do believe you only get one crack at life,” Isaacman said in the docuseries. “To the extent you have the means to do so, you have this obligation to live life to the fullest. You never know when it’s going to be your last day.”
He added in the docuseries that this philosophy had taken him to fly in air shows as part of a seven-ship formation aerobatic team and on mountain-climbing expeditions in Antarctica.
He’s involved with philanthropy.
Isaacman has been involved in several charitable causes and organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
His first SpaceX mission raised over $240 million for St. Jude and was named Inspiration4 to inspire support and raise awareness for the research hospital.
Isaacman and his wife have also committed to The Giving Pledge, a charitable campaign founded by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010.
The Giving Pledge serves as a commitment from wealthy people to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
Isaacman’s first space mission took place in 2021.
In 2021, Isaacman funded and led the first civilian mission to space, called Inspiration4. The mission was carried out by SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
Isaacman previously told Business Insider that the prep for the mission was extensive and involved a lot of studying and physical tests.
“The academics were pretty intense,” Isaacman said, adding that there were thousands of pages across a hundred manuals to learn about SpaceX’s Falcon and Dragon aircraft.
It also involved crew members learning how to draw blood from each other as well as take skin samples to prepare for increased radiation levels on the trip.
Isaacman commanded the first-ever privately funded space walk.
On September 10, 2024, Isaacman and three other crew members successfully took off on their way into orbit for the first-ever privately funded space walk.
The space walk featured SpaceX’s new EVA suits.
During the spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew will wear the new SpaceX EVA suits → https://t.co/LRl5pPlAC9 pic.twitter.com/MVHzNwiWZU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 10, 2024
Polaris Dawn lifted off from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s KSC, which also saw the launches of other historic missions, such as the Apollo 11 moon landing. Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew safely arrived back on the coast of Florida on September 15, 2024.
Trump nominated Isaacman to lead NASA.
In an X post on December 4 of last year, Isaacman called the nomination “the honor of a lifetime” and suggested that human space exploration would be a top priority.
Space-industry experts told Business Insider that Isaacman was not a traditional pick for NASA Administrator, but his background in commercial spaceflight would benefit the agency.
“They need someone who is not afraid to try something new if the old ways aren’t working,” George Nield, a former head of the FAA’s office of commercial space transportation, previously told Business Insider.
Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, called Isaacman “an inspired pick,” in part due to his “stellar” managerial skills.
“He has shown a real commitment to increasing access to space, and I think he is going to be a great person to promote space to the general public,” she said.
Trump later withdrew Isaacman’s nomination, citing a review of “prior associations.”
Trump said he was dropping Isaacman’s nomination on May 31 in a post on Truth Social, after a “thorough review of prior associations.” He also said that he would soon announce a new, “mission aligned” nominee.
Isaacman had donated to Democratic candidates throughout his career up until the 2024 election, according to OpenSecrets.
Isaacman responded to the withdrawal on X by saying he was “incredibly grateful” to the president, the Senate, and anyone who supported him throughout the nomination.
“The past six months have been enlightening and, honestly, a bit thrilling. I have gained a much deeper appreciation for the complexities of government and the weight our political leaders carry,” Isaacman wrote in a post.
Isaacman later said he was a “good visible target.”
In an episode of the “All-In Podcast” released in June, Isaacman said that his Democratic donations were always public and he doesn’t think it was the reason his nomination was withdrawn.
“I don’t think that the timing was much of a coincidence that, you know, there was other changes going on the same day,” Isaacman said, adding that there was “more than one departure that was covered on that day.”
Isaacman said that he thinks there were “axes to grind” and he was a “good visible target.” He said he doesn’t “fault the president at all” and fully supports him.
Musk defended Isaacman and later entered into a highly public feud with Trump over his spending bill.
Musk had ended his time at the White House leading DOGE just days before the decision to withdraw Isaacman’s nomination. Musk swiftly came to Isaacman’s defense following the withdrawal and wrote in a post and said on X that it was “rare to find someone so competent and good-hearted.”
Days later, Musk ramped up his criticism of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which escalated into the two exchanging insults on social media. Musk accused the president of being involved in the Epstein files, and Trump threatened to eliminate government contracts with Musk’s companies.
Trump referred to Isaacman as a “blue blooded Democrat” on Truth Social.
While the dust appeared to momentarily settle between Musk and Trump after their public dust-up, the feud started back up again when Musk renewed his criticism of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which was just signed into law in July.
Isaacman was drawn to the forefront as tensions rose between the two.
In a post about the end of EV mandates in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump shed some more light on the decision that went into withdrawing Isaacman’s nomination.
“Elon asked that one of his close friends run NASA and, while I thought his friend was very good, I was surprised to learn that he was a blue blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before,” Trump said on Truth Social in July.
Isaacman had previously said in the “All-In Podcast” in June that he’s always been “somewhat of a moderate” and leaned right.
Trump added that he thought it was “inappropriate” that a close friend of Musk would run NASA when it’s such a big part of Musk’s corporate life.
Isaacman said he thought his initial nomination was a scam.
On an episode of the “Shawn Ryan Show” in September, Isaacman said he didn’t take it seriously when Trump’s transition team first approached him about leading NASA.
He said that in late November 2024, a friend informed him that his name was being circulated for a job in the administration. Then, while running in Central Park, he said he missed a call and had a message from a number he didn’t recognize — he said he assumed it was a scam.
“It was like, ‘Would you be interested in serving in DJT’s administration?” Isaacman said on the podcast. “And I deleted it because I was like, if it was not a scam, it would be just a little bit more legit than this.”
Isaacman said he realized his mistake when the friend reached out again and said the administration was trying to reach him. He soon got on the phone with Howard Lutnick, who had been running his transition team at the time, about leading NASA, Isaacman said. The next day, he said he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
He said Trump shook his hand at the end of the meeting and said “you got the job.” Isaacman added that he thought Trump liked him in part because he was a “political newcomer.”
Trump re-nominated Isaacman for NASA administrator in November.
Months after withdrawing his nomination for Isaacman, Trump renominated Isaacman for NASA administrator on Tuesday.
“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 Truth Social post.
Following the renomination announcement, Isaacman thanked Trump for the opportunity in a post on X.
“Godspeed, President Donald J. Trump, and Godspeed NASA, as America leads the greatest adventure in human history,” Isaacman said in the post.
Isaacman is confirmed as the new head of NASA.
After a volatile year, Isaacman was finally confirmed as NASA administrator on December 17, with the US Senate voting 67-30 to approve his appointment.
Isaacman will take over the position from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has served as the agency’s interim administrator since July.
In a hearing before the Senate earlier this month, Isaacman stressed the importance of beating China in the race to land astronauts on the moon, warning that failure to do so could “could shift the balance of power here on Earth.”
This story was originally published on September 11, 2024, and most recently updated on December 18, 2025.
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