CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The nominee for NASA’s top job, billionaire spacewalker Jared Isaacman, outlined his vision for space exploration on Wednesday that prioritizes sending astronauts to Mars without giving up on the moon.
“It's imperative that we do both,” Isaacman told senators.
President Donald Trump nominated Isaacman to become NASA’s 15th administrator late last year. If confirmed, the tech entrepreneur would become the youngest person to lead the space agency and among only a handful of administrators to have actually rocketed into orbit.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee gathered in Washington for the nomination hearing. Besides Isaacman, nine other experienced space travelers were in the audience, including NASA's next moon crew and passengers who flew on private spaceflights with him.
Isaacman assured the senators that he would not give up on the moon and wants the U.S. to beat China in landing astronauts there.
“I didn’t say we shouldn’t go to the moon,” he said. “What’s taking so long to get back to the moon and why does it cost so much money? I absolutely want to see us return to the moon.”
Moon and Mars expeditions can be developed in parallel. “I don't think these are either-or,” he added. NASA can afford both under current funding, he said, without elaborating.
Isaacman, 42, has already flown in space twice, buying his own trips with SpaceX, and performed the world’s first private spacewalk last September. An experienced jet pilot, he made his fortune with a payment processing company he started as a high school dropout in his parents’ basement, now called Shift4.
He acknowledged in his testimony that he is not “a typical nominee for this position.”
“I have been relatively apolitical; I am not a scientist and I never worked at NASA," he said. “I do not think these are weaknesses.”
The space agency and others were anxious to hear Isaacman’s stand on the moon and Mars for human exploration, given his close association with SpaceX’s Elon Musk.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the committee's chairman, urged the need to “stay the course” with NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon.
“An extreme shift in priorities at this stage would almost certainly mean a red moon, ceding ground to China for generations to come," Cruz said.
NASA has been pitching the moon as the next logical step for astronauts for years. The Artemis program aims to send a crew around the moon next year and land astronauts near the moon’s south pole as early as 2027. Lunar bases are planned this time around, not just quick visits like the ones during NASA’s Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Artemis has been slow going and expensive, especially for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. It’s only blasted off once so far — in 2022 without a crew.
Musk favors Mars as a destination, as he ramps up more test flights out of Texas for Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket. By making Starship reusable, he intends to dramatically lower costs of getting people and equipment to the red planet.
NASA has chosen Starship for its first two astronaut landings on the moon under Artemis, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.
When asked if Musk has contacted him since his nomination about how to manage NASA, Isaacman replied, “not at all.” Isaacman then was questioned how he would protect against undue influence from Musk, given SpaceX's billions of dollars' worth of contracts with NASA.
“I absolutely want to be clear," Isaacman said. “My loyalty is to this nation, the space agency and their world-changing mission."
Isaacman said he supports continuing the International Space Station through 2030, as currently planned by NASA. Musk suggested earlier this year that the space station should be dumped as soon as possible in order to focus on Mars.
When pressed by senators again before the hearing ended, Isaacman said the space station should keep going until it's replaced by private outposts in orbit.
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FILE - Commander Jared Isaacman speaks at a news conference after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center for an upcoming private human spaceflight mission in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois landlord who killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy's mother in a brutal hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced Friday to 53 years in prison.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.
Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Czuba to 30 years in the boy's death and another 20 years consecutively for the attack on Shaheen. The judge also sentenced him to three years imprisonment for hate crimes. The length of the sentence makes it all but certain he will die behind bars.
“No sentence can restore what was taken, but today’s outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice,” said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago. “Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
Czuba did not speak during the sentencing. Neither Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office, nor Czuba's attorney, George Lenard, responded to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The boy's great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, was the only family member who spoke during the hearing. He said that no matter the sentence length it wouldn't be enough. The boy's parents had plans for him and Czuba robbed them of that, he said.
Yousef asked Czuba to explain why he attacked the boy and his mother, asking him what news he heard that provoked him, but Czuba did not respond, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors' case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba's wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child's body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee's relatives.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors at trial. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning a verdict.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee's funeral drew large crowds and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover.
She said there were no prior issues in the two years she rented from the Czubas, even sharing a kitchen and a living room. Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. He later confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shaheen, who testified at trial in English and Arabic though a translator.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house, sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
Yousef told reporters after the hearing that Czuba was a grandfather figure to Wadee and the family doesn’t understand what “fake news” Czuba may have heard about the war in Gaza that caused him to attack the boy and his mother. People need to understand Muslims before judging them, he said.
“Some people are bringing this war to this country,” Yousef said. “We cannot do that. We can’t bring the war here. We cannot bring hatred to this country . . . we need that to stop.”
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of ‘Mahmoud’ in 4th graf.
Odai Al Fayoumi, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Will County Prosecutor Christopher Koch exits the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Joseph Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FILE - Wadee Alfayoumi's father, Oday Al Fayoume, seated right, and his uncle Mahmoud Yousef attend a vigil for Wadee at Prairie Activity and Recreation center in Plainfield, Ill., Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - Joseph Czuba, 71, stands before Circuit Judge Dave Carlson for his arraignment at the Will County, Ill., courthouse, Oct. 30, 2023, in Joliet, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
