The Brief

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman's confirmation as the new head of NASA closes a turbulent chapter that began over a year ago.

The Senate voted 67-30 on Wednesday to confirm Isaacman along bipartisan lines. All 30 senators who voted against him were Democrats.

The 42-year-old e-commerce mogul has flown to space twice on private missions — both in partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX — and in 2024 became the first civilian to walk in space. Isaacman has no federal government experience.

Isaacman was among President Donald Trump's first picks for his second administration: Trump announced his nomination in December 2024, well before his inauguration, and formalized it after taking office in January.

"Jared's passion for Space, astronaut experience, 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 on Truth Social at the time.

Isaacman made it as far as a three-hour Senate subcommittee hearing in April, where he downplayed his connections to Musk but declined to answer when asked whether Musk was in the room when Trump offered him the role. Isaacman also expressed support for lunar and Mars missions, saying he believed NASA had the budget to do both.

While NASA is focused on its Artemis mission to return Americans to the moon for the first time since the early 1970s, the second Trump administration has concerned some with its seeming preoccupation with Mars exploration — a riskier and more divisive concept that just so happens to be a longtime dream of Trump's onetime ally, Musk.

But Isaacman didn't get the chance to answer questions about any of that in front of the full Senate, because Trump withdrew his nomination in late May — the same week Musk left his role in the administration.

Trump said the decision followed a "thorough review" of Isaacman's "prior associations," and later explicitly blamed his donations to Democratic causes. Public filings show that Isaacman has contributed to candidates and political action committees of both parties over the years, but since 2016 has supported more Democrats.

Isaacman has described himself as "relatively apolitical" and a "right-leaning moderate," and noted that his campaign donations were public long before Trump nominated him — suggesting that wasn't the only reason for the reversal. In June, Isaacman said being considered to lead NASA was "truly the honor of a lifetime."

"Even knowing the outcome, I would do it all over again," Isaacman wrote in a letter to investors.

And that's what ended up happening — only the second time, it worked.

Isaacman takes the helm at a turbulent time for NASA

In early November, Trump nominated Isaacman again, without acknowledging the turmoil that had unfolded along the way.

At his confirmation hearing in early December, Isaacman once again denied that his connections to Musk posed a conflict of interest. The nominee explained that his spaceflights were operated by SpaceX because the company is the only option for sending Americans to space since NASA retired its space shuttle program in 2011.

"In that respect, my relationship [to Musk] is no different than that of NASA," he said, adding that "there are no pictures of us at dinner, at a bar, on an airplane, or on a yacht because they don't exist."

Isaacman takes the helm of an agency that has been grappling with a lack of permanent leadership, downsizing, competitive pressure (particularly from China) and significant funding cuts — with threats of more to come.

The administration's 2026 budget proposes a historic 24% cut to overall NASA funding, which would slash its workforce by about a third and spell the end of 41 science projects.

In recent months, protesters have descended on Capitol Hill to lobby against the proposed budget cuts. Among them was beloved "Science Guy" Bill Nye, the CEO of the nonprofit Planetary Society, who also attended Isaacman's December hearing in a show of support for the nominee. The House and Senate both reject the deepest proposed cuts, but differ in how much funding they think its science budget should get.

A 62-page draft agenda named "Project Athena," which Isaacman defended after it leaked in May, offers clues as to how Isaacman seeks to run NASA: primarily, more like a business.

Its priorities include reorganization "aimed at reducing layers of bureaucracy," putting more astronauts in space more often, playing a larger role in certifying commercial space missions and partnering with industries like biotech and pharma to "figure out how to extract more value from space than we put in."

Jared Isaacman — pictured before he led the first all-civilian spaceflight in 2021 — has worked closely with Elon Musk's company SpaceX.

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Patrick T. Fallon

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AFP via Getty Images

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Isaacman's background is in e-commerce and private spaceflight

Isaacman traces his interest in space back to his childhood, when he was inspired by a picture book in his school library.

"I told my kindergarten teacher I was going to go to space someday," he recalled in 2021.

But first, he made it as an entrepreneur. He founded the payment processing firm now known as Shift4 Payments as a teenager out of his parents' New Jersey basement in 1991. The company, which went public in 2020, says it processes payments for 1 in 3 restaurants and 40% of hotels across the U.S.

Isaacman dropped out of high school to pursue his business, but later earned his GED and a bachelor's degree in aeronautics from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University. He is a licensed pilot with over 7,000 flight hours, according to his Polaris bio.

He also co-founded a civilian aerobatic display team called the Black Diamond Jet Team, as well as Draken International, which provides tactical fighter aircraft to customers including the military and defense industries. He sold a majority share of it to the investment firm Blackstone Group in 2019 for a reported nine-figure sum.

Forbes values Isaacman's current net worth at $1.2 billion. That fortune has allowed him to pursue his astronaut ambitions, as well as support STEM-related causes (he and his wife have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to charity).

Isaacman funded and commanded the first all-civilian orbital flight in 2021 — which raised over $240 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — as well as the 2024 Polaris Dawn mission, in which he and crewmate Sarah Gillis became the first civilians to conduct a spacewalk.

Upon his return, Isaacman told NPR's All Things Considered that while Earth looked beautiful from afar, "looking out into the darkness of space, it was a very unwelcoming feeling that this is a threatening environment for humans."

"We certainly didn't evolve to be here, and if we want to be here, we're going to have to work really hard in order to kind of open up this last frontier," he added. "That was kind of one of the big takeaways I had."
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Take accountability and move forward.

Those were the two points Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore hit repeatedly when speaking with LAist’s Larry Mantle this week.

On taking accountability, Moore said hazardous conditions and decisions made before the Palisades Fire erupted a year ago meant “our firefighters never had a chance” to arrest the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.

On moving forward, he emphasized that reform is already in the works.

“Things have changed since the Palisades Fire, and we're going to continue making big changes in the Los Angeles Fire Department,” said Moore, who was selected for the LAFD top job by Mayor Karen Bass in November.

Here are three takeaways from the interview, which aired on AirTalk on Tuesday.

1. Staffing decisions hampered fire response

The LAFD uses a so-called pre-deployment matrix to set firefighter staffing levels ahead of high-risk weather.

According to the department’s after-action report, however, staffing levels on the day the Palisades Fire began fell short of the LAFD standard for extreme weather conditions. The National Weather Service had warned of low humidity, high winds and dry vegetation, what it calls a “particularly dangerous situation.” It’s the highest level of alert the agency can give.

Despite the high risk, the LAFD report said the decision not to deploy more firefighters in advance was in part made to save money.

Moore said Monday that the department has updated its policies to increase staffing for especially hazardous conditions, but he said he doesn’t believe additional resources would have stopped a fire of the magnitude that leveled the Palisades.

To suppress that kind of fire, he said, the department would need to pre-deploy resources across the city’s vast geography — to places like Baldwin Hills, Franklin Canyon, the Hollywood Hills, the Palisades, Porter Ranch and Sunland-Tujunga.

Moore said the department has already made new policies to call for more resources when the Weather Service issues a “particularly dangerous situation” alert.

2. LAFD is mostly an urban firefighting department

Moore referenced a key finding of the after-action report regarding a lack of training in wildland firefighting, which contributed to confusion and struggles to effectively utilize resources during the fire.

Wildland fires pose a number of challenges that are different from what firefighters face in urban environments. Those include the need to coordinate a large number of resources over vast areas, all while dealing with fast-moving flames that can rapidly tear through dry plants and structures.

The department found in its report that fewer firefighters were trained in fighting these wildland fires in recent years and that “leaders struggled to comprehend their roles.”

Some leaders in the department had “limited or no experience in managing an incident of such complexity,” the report said. And some reverted to doing the work of lower positions, leaving high-level decision-making positions unfilled.

“What we're doing now is really furthering that training and reinforcing that education with our firefighters so that they could be better prepared,” Moore said on AirTalk.

3. Changes to the after-action report

Early versions of the after-action report differed from the version released to the public in October, a fact that was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The Times also reported that Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, who wrote the report, wouldn’t endorse the final version because of the changes.

Moore acknowledged to the L.A. Board of Fire Commissioners at a Jan. 6 meeting that the report had been watered down.

“It is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership in that final report,” Moore told the commissioners. “This editing occurred prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can assure you that nothing of this sort will ever again happen while I am fire chief."

Some changes were small but telling. A section titled “Failures” later became “Primary Challenges.”

Moore told LAist that changes between versions “ made it easier for the public to understand,” but an LAist review found the edits weren’t all surface-level.

In the first version of the report, the department said the decision not to fully pre-deploy all available resources for the particularly dangerous wind event “did not align” with their guidelines for such extreme weather cases. The final version said that the initial response “lacked the appropriate resources,” removing the reference to department standards.

The department also removed some findings that had to do with communications.

One sentence from the initial version of the report said: “Most companies lacked a basic briefing, leader’s intent, communications plan, or updated fire information for more than 36 hours.” That language was removed from the final report.

LAist has asked the Fire Department for clarification about why these assertions were removed but did not receive a response before time of publication.

Olympic organizers announced Tuesday that registration to buy tickets will run through March 18, with sales beginning in April. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said that locals will get the first bite at the apple.

The registration period opens 7 a.m. Wednesday.

" Our host city communities here in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to be a part of a local presale," Hoover said outside the Coliseum while surrounded by Olympic athletes from Games past. "With our thanks and as part of our commitment to making sure that those who live and work around the games, where the games will take place, can be in the stands and cheer in 2028."

Olympic organizers also provided more details on ticket prices for the first time. One million tickets will sell for $28 a pop and around a third of tickets will be under $100, according to LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman.

That means the majority of tickets to the Olympic Games will run into triple digits. If the World Cup is any indication, some tickets could get astronomically pricey.

Interested fans can go to LA28.org to register. Those who are selected will get an email with a time slot to purchase tickets.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors took a step toward banning ICE from unlawfully operating on county-owned property and to post signage designating those spaces as “ICE Free Zones.”

The board unanimously approved the motion at Tuesday’s meeting, directing staff to draft the policy.

The draft could include requirements for county employees to report to their supervisor if they see unauthorized immigration activity on county property.

The city of Los Angeles passed a similar order last July, which strengthened protocols that prohibit ICE from operating on city-owned property. The agenda staff report points to an “ICE Free Zone” ordinance passed by the city of Chicago in October.

Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis co-authored the motion.

Horvath said the county will not allow its property to be used as “a staging ground for violence caused by the Trump administration."

Solis added that their action as a board could have a ripple effect on other city councils and local governments.

“Even though it's taken us this long to get here …I think it's really important for our communities to understand what we're saying is you don't have the right to come in and harass people without a federal warrant,” Solis said. “And if you use our property to stage, then you need to show us documentation as to why.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in an X post that the county cannot exclude federal agents from public spaces.

"Anyone who attempts to impede our agents will be arrested and charged, including county employees," Essayli said in the post. "We have already charged more than 100 individuals for similar conduct."

Since June, ICE raids have ramped up across the nation, heavily targeting certain immigrant communities like those in Los Angeles.

The motion directs the draft to include language that prohibits all types of ICE operations on county land, including staging and mobilizing without a warrant.

The motion cites an incident on Oct. 8, when county officials say federal agents raided the Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in San Pedro, arresting three people and threatening to arrest staff.

The motion also requires that the county post 'Ice Free Zone' signage on all of its properties.

Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center of Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told LAist the policy is enforceable under Fourth Amendment case law.

“You have to make sure that when you post that signage … that means that you routinely, or semi-routinely, assess who's coming in to the property, so that you can control access,” Perez said. “But if ICE shows up with a warrant, with a subpoena, then all bets are off, and they can enter into the property and do what they need to do.”

Perez said the county has moved “incredibly” slow on this issue.

“It's embarrassing that the county is moving six months later, given how we've been facing violent, aggressive, invasive and illegal raids now for so long here in Southern California,” Perez said, adding that local governments have not been fast or creative enough in protecting immigrant and refugee communities.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, one of the region’s largest immigrant advocacy groups, supports the motion.

"We do not want our county resources being used for federal immigration enforcement activities, which disrupt, uproot, and terrorize our communities,” Jeannette Zanipatin, policy director for CHIRLA, said in a statement. “It is important for all public spaces to be really safe for all residents.”

County staff have 30 days to draft a plan to implement the new policy.