President-elect Donald Trump has selected Jared Isaacman as his pick to be the next head of NASA . Isaacman has previously said that it is inevitable that Space Force guardians will be stationed in space to protect America's economic interests. Isaacman (also a jet pilot) is a co-founder of Draken International - a military contractor with a fleet of privately owned fighter jets that provide training for US pilots.
New NASA pick says guardians in space is "inevitable"
According to reporting by Defense News, Jared Isaacman stated on Wednesday at the Space Force Association's Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida, "I think it is absolutely inevitable. If Americans are in low Earth orbit, there's going to need to be people watching out for them for all the reasons we described before."
Photo: US Space Force
Given that Isaacman said it is "inevitable," it is unclear when Isaacman thinks guardians could be stationed in space - or even if he thinks it's necessarily a good idea. His comments seem to be guided by the fact that the US has entered a new era of Great Power Competition. When two powers are competing, neither wants to be second.
"This [guardians in space] is the trajectory that humankind is going to follow. America is going to lead it and we're going to need guardians there on the high ground looking out for us." - Jared Isaacman
Isaacman didn't offer a timeline for when he thought guardians could be in space but suggested a military presence could coincide with future NASA moon and Mars missions.
There have been discussions about placing troops in space for a while. For example, in 2020, now retired Lt. Gen. John Shaw (previously second in command of the US Space Command) stated that one day, the US would send guardians into space to operate command centers or perform other missions.
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While Boeing's Starliner may be plagued with issues , SpaceX's Dragon II capsule has proven very successful, and SpaceX's new Starship is developing fast. As commercial space ventures continue to develop, the United States will have more space-related military opportunities.
Photo: Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks | United States Space Force
For example, while SpaceX may have designed the Starship as a vehicle to return astronauts to the moon and go to Mars for the first time, the DoD is interested in its military value - namely its ability to deploy troops and equipment almost anywhere in the world within minutes .
In addition to NASA's funding, the commercial space sector's development is partly driven by the lucrative low-earth orbit sector (like placing satellites into orbit) and emerging space tourism (like Amazon's Blue Origin project). It could be further propelled by commercial enterprises like space mining. Separately, the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be deorbited in 2031.
In December 2019, the US split the Space Force off from the United States Air Force as an independent service branch. Today, the Space Force's funding is around $30 billion per year (a bit more than NASA's $25 billion). While $30 billion is a reasonably small percentage of the total $850-900 billion the US spends on its military, it's still more than Canada's $23 billion military budget.
Photo: SpaceX
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans the stationing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in outer space and prohibits military activities on celestial bodies (including the moon). It rules that the exploration of space must be for peaceful purposes.
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Jared Isaacman is a billionaire and the founder and CEO of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments. He has also paid to go into space a couple of times, including on SpaceX's Dragon II capsule.
Photo: Evgeniyqw l Shutterstock
In 2021, Isaacman self-funded his ride on the new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule -- the first-ever spaceflight crewed only by civilians. He took his second ride into space in September onboard the Polaris mission. The Polaris mission traveled further than any other crewed mission since the Apollo program and included the first-ever commercial spacewalk .