All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Friday, September 18, 2026
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman criticized past NASA programs for being too large and costly, leading to inefficiencies and a slowdown in progress. He specifically mentioned the Orion spacecraft's inability to achieve lunar orbit as easily as Apollo and the cancellation of the Mars Sample Return mission due to escalating costs. Isaacman stated that NASA partnered for the sake of partnerships, which often became a drag on missions.
“As a result, we have the Orion spacecraft that we can't inject into low lunar orbit like we did during Apollo, and the prior administration canceled the Mars sample return mission that was on track to cost more than an aircraft carrier.”
“We created programs that were too big to fail, too costly to truly succeed in the hope that they would survive administrations.”
“We partnered for the sake of partnerships, oftentimes becoming a drag on the mission instead of accelerating it.”