🚀 Running NASA Really Is Rocket Science!

Letter From The Editor
It dawned on me that I haven’t written to you in a while. I mean, I write to you every week, but not anything from the heart.

The holidays were good. Stressful and filled with sickness, but it was great to spend time with family and unplug a little. I actually doubled-down on content creation because the weather was great, so I was able to get outside and do a lot of extra filming over the break.

Now we’re almost end of January, and it’s been an INSANE business cycle. I’ve tried to focus on the positives, but it hasn’t been easy. Since this isn’t a political newsletter, I’ve thrown myself into writing about more thats going on in the business world. For 2026 I want to lean more into where business meets culture, and the affect that has on both the business world and us as individuals. I know that’s kinda vague, but I’ll be unpacking it more as the year goes on.

For now, I couldn’t be more excited about where this newsletter, and our Business Behind The News YouTube channel are heading. Thank you to all of you who continue to support me as we grow!

In today’s newsletter I discuss NASA’s new Administrator Jared Isaacman, the NYSE is going to begin 24/7 crypto token trading, Sydney Sweeney might be in trouble for climbing the the Hollywood sign, Elon Musk is preparing for SpaceX’s IPO in 2026, OpenAI is working with Jony Ive to create a new AI hardware device, gold just hit a record high of $5,042.50 dollars per ounce, Tesla lost more than $15 billion dollars in brand value in 2024, and the Washington Spirit signed Trinity Rodman to a record breaking 3-year, $2 million dollar per year contract extension.

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🚀 Running NASA Really Is Rocket Science!

Imagine you’ve just been handed the keys to a business that’s a political football, has 18,000 employees, a budget of $24.4 billion dollars a year, and running it is literally rocket science. That’s the job Jared Isaacman just accepted when the Senate confirmed him as the new NASA Administrator. And it comes at a time when the price tag for exploring the cosmos is hitting a record high. 

Jared Isaacman's appointment as NASA Administrator brings a more business-minded approach to how the government buys its trips to orbit. He's the first billionaire to lead NASA, and the first person with commercial astronaut experience to take the top spot at the agency thanks to his own two privately funded SpaceX missions. Everyone from investors, to engineers, to politicians are watching to see how his background will affect the bottom line of the American space program as he tries to figure out how to return humans to the moon without breaking the bank.

Before we get into Jared Isaacman's background, I was wondering if you could help me out. One of my goals for this channel in 2026 is to reach 1,000 subscribers, and you can help me with that right now. If you’re new to this channel and like this video please consider smashing that Like button, and do me a solid and subscribe to my channel so you can be notified next time I drop a hot take. Thanks!

Jared Isaacman's journey as an entrepreneur is different from any other NASA Administrator in the history of the agency. He dropped out of high school at 16 to start his first company, United Bank Card, in the basement of his parent’s home. He later changed its name to Shift4 Payments, and grew it into a major force in the payment processing industry by focusing on high volume transactions for restaurants and hotels. Today Shift4 Payments handles over $200 billion dollars in payments annually, and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each quarter. The result of Shift4 Payment’s success has led to Jared Isaacman having a personal net worth estimated to be around $1.9 billion dollars. He also founded Draken International in 2012 to train military pilots from around the world using a private fleet of fighter jets that he owns. Draken International now has the largest private air force in the world, and provides services to the Department of Defense. In 2019 he sold a majority stake in Draken International to the Blackstone Group for a reported nine-figure sum. His experience building and selling large complex companies has given him a reputation for efficiency and operational success, and it’s a big reason the Senate chose him to manage the complex finances of NASA.

President Donald Trump originally nominated Jared Isaacman for the position while he was on good terms with Elon Musk, who was leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). When the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk changed after a falling out, President Donald Trump withdrew Jared Isaacman’s nomination and appointed Sean Duffy to be the acting interim administrator for NASA at the same time he was the Secretary of Transportation. When President Donald Trump and Elon Musk made up, Jared Isaacman was renominated and the Senate confirmed him in December 2025 with 67 votes in favor and 30 votes against his nomination. This political path to the leadership of NASA's been closely watched by observers in Washington and the private space sector. The decision to bring him back into the fold suggests a desire to keep strong ties with the commercial space industry despite previous disagreements between political leaders. It's clear the Trump administration wants a leader who's comfortable moving fast and breaking things in the style of a startup leader.

Jared Isaacman's appointment has resulted in his planned third private space mission with SpaceX to be canceled. The mission was designed to take a crew of hand selected people on a journey around the moon. One of his aims was to select individuals from diverse backgrounds and countries around the world to show that space can be accessible to everyone. The goal of this mission was to fly a Starship spacecraft into deep space and perform scientific research while orbiting the moon, without ever actually setting down on the lunar surface. Jared Isaacman had hand selected people from civilian life like Hayley Arceneaux from St. Francisville, Louisiana, who's a physician assistant, Chris Sembroski Kannapolis, North Carolina, who's a data engineer, Sian Proctor from Hagåtña, the capital of the United States territory of Guam, who is a full-time professor of geology, planetary science, and sustainability at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. These same individuals flew on the Inspiration4 mission, which Jared Isaacman funded, and went on to raise over $250 million dollars for charity. He also selected retired Airforce pilot Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis for the Polaris Dawn mission. These missions served as the templates for his planned moon mission, which is now on hold since he’s been appointed as NASA Administrator. In the meantime, it doesn’t look like Jared will be bored. NASA is already working on the Artemis II mission, which will send 4 NASA astronauts, including Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, around the moon sometime in 2026 if everything goes as planned. 

The financial management of NASA’s Artemis program is Jared Isaacman's highest priority as NASA works to return humans to the lunar surface. The project's massive $93 billion dollar price tag covers the next few years of the development of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. To say that these flights carry a heavy price tag is an understatement. Launching a single Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with an Orion spacecraft, is estimated to cost between $4-$5 billion dollars per mission, with estimates putting the SLS rocket alone at around $4.1 billion per launch, and then another $1 billion for each Orion capsule.

Holy spaceflight Batman!

And that doesn’t even land us on the moon. NASA signed a contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $2.9 billion dollars to build the initial human landing system to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface. And thanks to the beauty of government overspending, NASA signed a second contract with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for $3.4 billion dollars to create a second lunar landing option for later missions. Now there's significant pressure on Jared Isaacman to reduce the costs of these programs, while still meeting the goal of landing Americans on the moon before China gets there. 

Another major expense for NASA going forward is the Mars Sample Return mission, which has an estimated cost of $11 billion dollars. Jared Isaacman will need to work with the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to find more efficient ways to bring rocks from Mars back to Earth. Then we have the James Webb Space Telescope, which cost $10 billion dollars to develop, and is another example of a large-scale investment that NASA has made and needs to continue maintaining for the next decade. If you’re starting to get the feeling that NASA has a lot going on these days then you’re beginning to get a feel for how big of a job Jared Isaacman has ahead of him.

So here's the bottom line. Jared Isaacman is stepping into a role where the real work of returning to the moon and winning the space race with China is only just beginning. His appointment's a clear signal that the agency's shifting toward private companies to help trim that $24.4 billion dollars annual budget. Jared Isaacman has his work cut out for him as he tries to balance the books while directing the next several decades of human space flight. It's a high stakes gamble on the future of the American space program where the margins are thin and the costs are astronomical.

Quick Hits

🏛️ Business

The New York Stock Exchange is developing a platform that will allow for 24/7 trading of U.S. listed equities and ETFs in the form of crypto tokens. The NYSE’s parent company, Intercontinental Exchange, says this initiative will allow for fractional share trading and immediate settlement instead of the 1 day it usually takes for securities to settle. This follows the NASDAQ’s moves at the end of 2025 to allow for trading 23 hours a day.

I’m on the record as saying that allowing for trading 24/7/365 is a mistake, because without liquidity retail investors will be on the losing end of each trade. I’m all for the tokenization of securities, but the investors and trading volumes need to be there in order for it to be successful.

👙 Entertainment

Sydney Sweeney climbed the Hollywood sign to drape pink bras over the sign as a promotion for her new lingerie brand named Syrn. According to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, no license or permission was granted for the commercial shoot even though a filming permit was issued by FilmLA allowing her company to film what’s called “distance photography” of the sign. This unauthorized stunt by Sydney Sweeney at the landmark could lead to criminal trespass charges and fines that could reach $1,000 dollars or more for people who touch the restricted sign.

Sydney Sweeney’s new brand Syrn has raised funding from the private equity firm Coatue, which has raised funding from investors including Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell. While terms of their investment haven’t been revealed, celebrity clothing and cosmetics companies, like the
Kardashian’s Skimms and Kylie Cosmetics have reached billion dollar valuations.

If anyone can use their celebrity status to grow a brand Sydney Sweeney certainly can!

🤖 Tech

OpenAI is working with Jony Ive to create a new AI hardware device that is expected to drop in 2026. Chris Lehane, Chief Global Affairs Officer at OpenAI, says OpenAI's first AI device will operate differently than your normal smartphone. OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s io Products, Inc. for $6.5 billion dollars in May 2025 to develop a new family of AI hardware. The AI hardware space is already littered with devices that promised the power of AI, but delivered lack-luster pins or rings that fizzled when consumers got their hands on them. Here’s to hoping that Jony Ive can work his magic, like he did with Apple’s iPhone, and create the first AI device for OpenAI that consumers will rave about.

🚀 Space

Elon Musk is preparing for SpaceX’s IPO as early as June 2026 by bringing on board JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America to help the company go public with a target valuation of $1.5 trillion dollars. The company recently reached an $800 billion dollar valuation on the secondary market with shares priced at $421 dollars while recording $15 billion dollars in total revenue last year. Starlink generated $12 billion dollars of that revenue in 2025, as the company aims to raise $30 billion dollars from their IPO. With SpaceX’s IPO, Elon Musk will become the world’s first trillionaire, with a net worth of approximately $1.437 trillion dollars.

🟡 Precious Metals

The price of gold recently climbed to a record high of $5,042.50 dollars per ounce, as investors worry about global instability and inflation in the U.S.. Market analysts like Peter Schiff and Jerome Powell have monitored the rising value of the precious metal, which has seen a 117.76% percentage increase from the $2,315.60 dollars per ounce this time last year. I think the market is so chaotic right now, and the world is teetering on the head of a pin, that we could easily see the price of gold reach $6,000 dollars per ounce by the end of the year. Convince me I’m wrong!

® Branding

Tesla lost more than $15 billion dollars in brand value because of consumers' reactions to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter (which he calls X, but I continue to call Twitter), his political public statements, and his role in the Trump administration’s DOGE. The total valuation of Tesla’s brand dropped from $58 billion dollars in 2024 to $43 billion dollars in 2025, while other major electric vehicle companies saw their market share and reputation scores increase. It turns out that while we all have the freedom of speech, what we say can and does have real world effects.

⚽ Sports

The Washington Spirit, part of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), recently signed Trinity Rodman to a record breaking 3-year, $2 million dollar per year contract extension that runs through the conclusion of the 2028 season. This landmark agreement includes various bonuses that solidify Trinity Rodman as the highest paid female soccer player in the NWSL, and allows the Washington Spirit to utilize the new High Impact Player rule to exceed the league’s salary cap. It really isn’t much of a surprise that Trinity Rodman is such a phenomenal athlete, considering her dad is Dennis Rodman, one of the Chicago Bulls’s most eclectic power forwards to ever play the game.

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.