Now, finally, he will get a chance to act instead of reacting to everyone.
As the Project Athena plan clearly demonstrates, Isaacman has a good grasp of the problems at NASA, an aging and increasingly bureaucratic agency. NASA can still do great things, but it has become almost infinitely more difficult since the heady days of Apollo six decades ago.
Isaacman has ideas to shake things up, but not to the extent of uncontrolled change for the sake of change. It is clear from interviews he has given to others and from conversations with himself that Isaacman is also a good listener. He wants to understand problems so he can work with others to implement thoughtful solutions.
Perhaps most importantly for NASA, unlike some of the Trump administration’s other nominees, he appears to be a builder, not a leveler.
His toughest mission ever
Isaacman is coming to a troubled and hurting agency that has endured an exceptionally difficult year. Thanks in part to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, about 20 percent of the agency’s 17,500 employees took buyouts or early retirement. There have been significant layoffs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and there are concerns about the future of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Additionally, the agency is locked in a high-stakes race with China to return humans to the Moon, which has swung in China’s favor over the past 12 months.
The Administrator of NASA is responsible for working with Congress to implement Administration policies and secure funding to do so. In it, Isaacman finds himself between a Trump administration that sought to cut NASA’s budget by 24 percent, and a House and Senate that rejected the vast majority of the cuts in budget bills.
These are big hills to climb.
Looking back at the past year, it would be easy to say that NASA and Isaacman have lost more than half the year due to Isaacman’s withdrawal of the nomination in late May, when he was within days of bipartisan Senate approval. However, in the intervening months, Isaacman has made strong contacts within the US Senate and the White House. As part of the campaign to drum up support for his renomination, Isaacman has emerged with significantly more political experience, a much closer relationship with Trump and a deep list of contacts in his phone.
It’s all good, because despite all the great flying Isaacman has done to get to this point, his toughest flights lie ahead of him.
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