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贾瑞德·艾萨克曼是乘座星舰飞船从事太空行走的第一人
购买埃隆·马斯克的太空探索技术公司系列太空飞船船票并进行首次个人太空行走的科技亿万富翁被当选总统唐纳德·特朗普提名为美国航空航天局（简称宇航局）局长。
41岁的贾瑞德·艾萨克曼是一家信用卡交易数据处理公司的首席执行官和创始人，自购买了马斯克的太空探索技术公司航天飞机的飞行权以来，他一直是埃隆·马斯克的密切合作者。他在2021年的一场竞赛中赢得了乘坐太空探索技术公司航天飞机进行太空旅行的门票，并与其他获胜者一起在当年9月进行了一次太空旅行。飞行途中，艾萨克曼还曾短暂出舱尝试太空行走，以测试太空探索技术公司的新太空行走服。
如果得到确认，艾萨克曼将取代82岁的比尔·纳尔逊。纳尔逊是来自佛罗里达州的前民主党参议员，由民主党总统乔·拜登提名，他在担任国会议员期间曾于1986年乘坐哥伦比亚号航天飞机飞赴太空，这次飞行是在挑战者号出现灾难性事故之前。
艾萨克曼表示，他很荣幸得到这一提名并“感激有服务的机会”。他通过社交媒体平台X说：“很幸运能从太空看到我们神奇的星球，我对美国领导人类历史上最令人难以置信的冒险充满热情。”
马斯克的星舰已经成为美国宇航局不得不依赖的商业航天公司
在纳尔逊担任局长期间，美国宇航局加快了让宇航员重返月球的努力。这个下一代的阿波罗计划以阿波罗神话中的双胞胎姐妹星阿耳忒弥斯命名，计划最早在明年派遣四名宇航员绕月飞行。然后开始执行在人类第一次登月半个多世纪后再次登月的计划。
美国宇航局指望太空探索技术公司将宇航员通过其星际飞船送到月球表面，发射星际飞船的大型火箭已在德克萨斯州进行测试飞行。
美国宇航局已经依赖太空探索科技公司让宇航员与供应物资往返国际空间站。今年6月，波音公司为美国宇航局发射了第一批机组人员，但波音的“星际飞船”太空舱遇到了很多问题，两名试飞员最终被困在了空间站。在轨道上飞行8个多月后，他们才在今年2月搭乘太空探索科技公司的飞船返回地球。他们的任务原本只计划持续8天。
美国宇航局现在的计划还有：探索太阳系，将机器人送往月球，将美国宇航局的航天器送往木星的水月木卫二和将火星探测器“毅力”送往火星收集更多的岩石和泥土样本。
因预算紧张，美国宇航局正在寻求一种比已膨胀到110亿美元，在2040年之前可能什么都无法实现的最初计划更快、更便宜地将火星样本送回地球的方式。与载人航天飞行一样，美国宇航局已经向行业公司和其他领域寻求想法和帮助。
马斯克通过X向艾萨克曼表示祝贺，称他是一个具有“高能力和正直诚实的人”。
身为私人战斗机飞行员的艾萨克曼的飞行呼叫名称是新手的缩写“Rook“，他自称从幼儿园开始就是一个“太空极客”。他16岁时从高中辍学，但获得了高中学历证书，并在父母的地下室开始创业，后来成功创立交易与支付处理服务公司Shift4。他的公司总部设在宾夕法尼亚州东部，他和他的妻子以及两个年幼的女儿住在那里。
2009年，他在为“许愿计划”筹集资金时创造了在全球飞行的速度纪录，后来，他又建立了拥有世界上最大私人战斗机机群的德雷肯国际公司。
艾萨克曼已经预订了另外两次太空探索科技公司的太空飞行船票，包括带领星际飞船第一批宇航员进入绕地球轨道的旅行。
拥有最大的敌人战斗机群的私人战斗机飞行员
Billionaire who performed the first private spacewalk is Trump’s pick to lead NASA. By MARCIA DUNN, Fla. (AP). December 5, 2024.
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 credit 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 flight where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits.
If confirmed, Isaacman will replace Bill Nelson, 82, a former Democratic senator from Florida who was nominated by President Joe Biden. Nelson flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1986 – on the flight right before the Challenger disaster — while a congressman.
Isaacman said he was honored to be nominated and would be “grateful to serve.” “Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history,” he said via X.
During Nelson’s tenure, NASA picked up steam in its effort to return astronauts to the moon. This next-generation Apollo program — named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister Artemis — plans to send four astronauts around the moon as soon as next year. The first moon landing in more than half a century would follow.
NASA is counting on SpaceX to get astronauts to the lunar surface via Starship, the mega rocket launching out of Texas on test flights.
The space agency already relies on SpaceX to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station along with supply runs. Boeing launched its first crew for NASA in June, but the Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that the two test pilots ended up stuck at the space station. They’ll catch a ride home with SpaceX in February, after more than eight months in orbit. Their mission should have lasted eight days.
Also on NASA’s plate right now: exploring the solar system. Robotic missions to the moon and beyond continues with a NASA spacecraft en route to Jupiter’s watery moon Europa and the Mars rover Perseverance collecting more rock and dirt samples.
Facing tight budgets, NASA is seeking a quicker, cheaper way of getting these Martian samples to Earth than the original plan, which had swollen to $11 billion with nothing arriving before 2040. As with human spaceflight, NASA has turned to industry and others for ideas and help.
Musk congratulated Isaacman via X, describing him as a man of “high ability and integrity.”
The fighter jet-piloting Isaacman, whose call name is Rook, short for rookie, has described himself as a “space geek” since kindergarten. He dropped out of high school when he was 16, got a GED certificate and started a business in his parents’ basement that became the genesis for Shift4. His business is based in eastern Pennsylvania, where he lives with his wife and their two young daughters.
He set a speed record flying around the world in 2009 while raising money for the Make-A-Wish program, and later established Draken International, the world’s largest private fleet of fighter jets.
Isaacman has reserved two more flights with SpaceX, including a trip leading Starship’s first crew into orbit around Earth.
来源：读行品世事一点号
