4/9/2025 – President Donald Trump’s candidate For NASA Administrator, billionaire space judge Jared Isaacman, will face questions at Wednesday’s confirmation hearing before a Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation.
Fox News Digital has exclusively obtained a list of civil astronauts participating in Isaacman at the hearing. Mission to Space With a 42-year-old entrepreneur.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Kid Poteetta, a former Thunderbird pilot, will become one of the astronauts who support Trump’s candidates. In recent September’s Polaris Dawn outer space, Poteet served as a mission pilot and previously collaborated with Isaacman. Spaceflight initiatives.
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Isaacman’s All-Civilian Inspiration4 Mission will raise $200 million from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through a donation-based sweepstakes and select members of the crew. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Getty Images)
Sarah Gillis, SpaceX’s lead space operations engineer and one of the company’s first female mission controllers, and SpaceX’s biomedical engineer and lead space operations engineer Anna Menon, both will work with Isaacman on the Polaris Dawn Mission and will be attending the hearing with his support.
The candidate will be joined by former colleagues behind the historic 2021 Inspiration 4 mission. This was the first civil-led spaceflight to orbit the Earth. Chrissenbroski, a US Air Force veteran who served as mission pilots, an analog astronaut, aerospace data engineer and mission specialist, and Dr. Cyan Proctor, Haley Assistant, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Haley Assistant, who became a pediatric cancer survivor at the age of 29.
Sembroski was sitting at a raffle at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during a mission fundraising campaign.
Isaacman was introduced to the committee by Senator Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, and said, “For nearly 70 years, the United States has been at the forefront of space exploration. President Trump knows how important it is to reinvigorate NASA, so he can once again lead the world to New Heights.
“Successful innovators, entrepreneurs, pilots and astronauts believe in NASA’s core mission,” the Montana Senator told FOX. “He has the experience and skill set that ensures he will continue to lead the best known frontiers to date, and we look forward to adding a NASA administrator to his already remarkable resume.”
Workers pressure wash the NASA logo on the vehicle assembly building before SpaceX and send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station at the Falcon 9 Rocket in Kennedy Space Center, Florida on May 19, 2020. (Reuters/Joe Skipper/File Photo)
Additional senators have already spoken before the hearing, including Sen. Ted Cruz of R-Texas. Posted on x On Monday, “During our meeting, Isaacman promised that American astronauts could return to the moon as quickly as possible and develop the technology they needed to get to Mars.”
“The moon’s mission must happen in President Trump’s term, or China will beat us there and build our first Moon Base,” continued Sen. Cruz. “Artemis and The Moon-to-Mars Program are important for American leadership in space!”
Fox News Digital also obtained the opening remarks of Isaacman for the nomination hearing. There, we intend to emphasize the importance of multiplanet travel and the plan to prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars.
The Trump candidate’s comments also touch on the value NASA brings to the United States.
“This is why America needs NASA. Why does the world need NASA? Because there is no investment that is more important than encouraging children to build a better, more exciting future.
Photos of this handout provided by SpaceX and Polaris on September 15, 2024 show mission commander Jared Isaacman escaped from the artificial Polaris Dawn mission “dragon” capsule after jumping off the coast of Drite Lutugas, Florida, after completing the Polaris program’s first human space flight mission. The SpaceX Polaris Dawn Mission made history when its crew carried out its first spacecraft by non-governmental astronauts, jumping off the coast of Florida on the beginning of September 15, 2024. Crew. The capsule was lifted from the water into a recovery container after 30 minutes. (Polaris Program/AFP via Getty Images)
Isaacman may face questions about a recent report that SpaceX founder Doge Head Elon Musk is intended to “take over” space management. Congressional Democrats were critical of Musk’s involvement in space travel. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-florida) and Rep. Gery Connolly (D-Virginia) have written to NASA Chief Legal Officer Iris Lan to remove the link between the world’s wealthiest person and US space funds.
However, a senior official at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC told Fox News Digital on Tuesday: “NASA’s representative administrator Janet Patro is leading the agency under the Trump administration. Neither Elon Musk nor SpaceX have affected agency priorities.”
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Isaacman has accumulated $1.3 billion in fortune as founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a credit card payment processing company. The entrepreneur dropped out of high school at just 16 years old after working for a payment processing company, eventually building a technology empire using a $10,000 check from his grandfather.
Compared to former US Senator and astronaut Bill Nelson, a former NASA administrator, some critics have called Isaac Man an outsider.
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Fox News Digital spoke with NASA spokesman Bethany Stevens in March. He said, “President Trump was once considered an outsider and shows how much he appreciates the business side he brings to the table.
Preston Mizell is an author of Fox News Digital, which covers Breaking News. Daniel Wallace is a news and political reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and to X:@danimwallace.
