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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Marcia Dunn

Billionaire who performed the first private spacewalk is Trump's pick to lead NASA

Trump Transition NASA - (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk's SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to lead NASA.

Jared Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of a card-processing company, has been a close collaborator with Musk ever since buying his first chartered flight with SpaceX. He took along contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX's new spacewalking suits.

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