Commander Jared Isaacman of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, speaks at a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 19, 2024.
Joe Skipper | ReutersPresident Donald Trump has met with Jared Isaacman to discuss another nomination to lead NASA, a source familiar with the talks confirmed to CNBC's Morgan Brennan.Isaacman, who has close ties with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, was at the White House in September for Trump's dinner for power players.
Musk did not attend.After a fiery back-and-forth between Musk and Trump over government spending, the president pulled Isaacman's nomination for the post, saying he was a "blue blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before.""I also thought it inappriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space , run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon's corporate life," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on June 6.Trump named Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy interim head of NASA in July.Bloomberg was first to report on the meetings between Isaacman and Trump.Isaacman, who declined to , was initially nominated in December to lead the space agency.Read more CNBC news'Focus on value creation; the stock market will settle itself,' says Snowflake CEO amid bubble fearsGoogle adds limits to 'Work from Anywhere' policy that began during CovidAMD's deal with OpenAI gives Nvidia much-needed challenger in a market it dominatesAmazon launches prescription vending machines at One Medical clinics in Los AngelesIsaacman is a seasoned space traveller, having led two private spaceflights with SpaceX in 2021 and 2024.
Shift4 has invested $27.5 million in SpaceX, according to a 2021 filing.Isaacman stepped down as CEO from Shift4, the payments company he founded in 1999 at the age of 16, after his nomination was pulled, and now serves as executive chairman."Even knowing the outcome, I would do it all over again," Isaacman wrote the NASA nomination cess in a letter to investors announcing the Shift4 change.It now looks he gets to do it all over again, with tensions between Musk and Trump cooling in the months since.watch now23:3323:33The First-Ever Private Spacewalk with Polaris Dawn Mission Commander Jared IsaacmanClosing Bell: Overtime