The article's statement about Isaacman "having no scientific or engineering background" seems off, considering his design and participation in the Inspiration and Polaris space flights.
Better to say "no formal education" in science or engineering.
He probably didn't have any "formal education" in the business world, where he started a company at just 16 years of age that has made him a billionaire, now.
Seems like he is pretty darn good at figuring out how to get things done in both the technological world and financial world.
And I think that is what NASA needs right now.
Has anybody here heard any of the scuttlebutt from NASA employees about this nomination?
I personally think he could be awesome for NASA. Isaacman, like Bridenstine, is excited and passionate about space and spaceflight and not only America's, but Humanity's role in it. He may likely be a participant in a major shakeup / shakedown in the Human Spaceflight division, which isn't going to shock anyone. But he has previously shared his dismay, sympathy and frustration over the gutting of the science divisions over the last 2 years, most notably at JPL. We've seen that having former astronauts and engineers (Griffin, Bolding, etc) raised and entrenched in the "old ways" hasn't helped the pace, nor having a former congressman do anything other than turn NASA into the most political machine it's ever been - secretive and bordering on false statements - case in point the frick'n Orion heat shield. Took the Office of Inspector General's public report to finally get NASA to acknowledge there were major problems.
Hearsay in comment threads in other discussions suggest that he's being well received by the young NASA engineers who have been frustrated that they joined NASA from a lifelong dream, and dream of returning astronauts to the moon but who have only seen a single launch in the last two decades and rather spend their days, weeks, months and years in meetings, presentations, running simulations and weighing leaving and joining a commercial company to feel like they're actually making a contribution.
The next year or two will be pretty interesting!
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