Trump's NASA Appointee Signals Focus on Mars Mission

By Joey Roulette and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to head NASA is set to inform senators on Wednesday that the agency will focus on sending astronauts to Mars. However, they will also acknowledge that many of America’s space initiatives are exceeding their budgets and falling short of projected timelines.

"We plan to focus on dispatching American astronauts to Mars. During this journey, we will also develop the capacity to revisit the Moon and assess the scientific, economic, and national security advantages of having a sustained presence there," stated Jared Isaacman, a 42-year-old wealthy business mogul, in prepared remarks submitted during his U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

On Monday, reports indicated that Isaacman informed Senate staffers earlier in the week that getting humans back to the Moon before China does so with its own crew is crucial for national priorities. This statement helped alleviate worries that NASA’s multi-billion dollar lunar program might be derailed due to President Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk prioritizing Mars as the primary objective for American astronauts.

NASA's Artemis moon program was spawned by Trump in his first presidential term as an effort to speed up the U.S. return to the moon, which would be used as a proving ground for eventual, farther-off missions to Mars.

Following his commitments to legislators regarding the lunar mission plan, Isaacman’s written statement brings up doubts about whether focusing on Mars might impact NASA's current moon projects or signify a reshaping of the initiative to place greater importance on Mars within the space agency's objectives.

It's anticipated that the billionaires' position regarding the initiative will be a key point of discussion at his upcoming Senate hearing on Wednesday.

The organization has invested billions of dollars into its lunar initiative, which includes cooperation with U.S. partners and significant reliance on numerous private enterprises—such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX—that aim to establish themselves in an emerging lunar economy.

However, during his second term, Trump has focused on Mars in various public statements, whereas Musk, having invested $250 million in backing Trump’s presidential campaign and advocating for Isaacman's appointment, clearly views the Moon as merely a diversion from his primary objective: sending missions to the Red Planet.

These perspectives, along with Musk's criticism of prominent NASA contractors such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman—both crucial players in the Artemis project—have placed the agency’s main and cost-overrun-prone lunar rocket in an precarious position. Its fate remains unclear should billionaire Jared Isaacman take charge at NASA.

The rocket, developed jointly by Boeing and Northrop and known as the Space Launch System, has already cost NASA over $20 billion in development expenses. This figure is anticipated to nearly triple when factoring in upcoming missions aimed at transporting astronauts to the moon. After facing numerous postponements, its maiden—and so far sole—launch occurred in 2022; this initial flight was unmanned but proved successful.

In his statement, Isaacman mentioned that delayed and over-budget NASA initiatives are "disheartening."

"It is disheartening because people gaze at the stars today and ponder what lies beyond, rather than waiting for decades," his statement read.

(David Shepardson reported from Washington and Joey Roulette from Colorado Springs; editing by Sandra Maler)