A 62-page document written by President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again pick to run NASA, billionaire Jared Isaacman, outlines a sweeping, ambitious, and at times controversial plan for the space agency.

Isaacman, who was tapped to be NASA administrator after Trump was elected in 2024, only to see his nomination retracted months later, was renominated for the top job last Tuesday.

While Isaacman has publicly acknowledged the leaked document, which is labeled May 2025 but was recently leaked to several news outlets, he said in a social media post that “parts of it are now dated.” He did not specify which portions were obsolete.

It nonetheless set off a flurry of speculation about how the space agency would function with Isaacman at the helm. A copy of the document was obtained and authenticated by CNN.

In his statement, which was posted the day of his renomination, Isaacman said that “Project Athena,” as the paper is titled, “was always intended to be a living document refined through data gathering post-confirmation.”

“I would think it is better to have a plan going into a responsibility as great as the leadership of NASA than no plan at all,” the statement reads.

Among the proposed goals are revamping some NASA centers to focus on nuclear electric propulsion, establishing a new Mars exploration program, and embracing an “accelerate/fix/delete” philosophy to reshape the agency.

If enacted, many of the policies laid out could significantly alter the day-to-day lives of NASA workers and transform the 67-year-old agency.

“I think it is presenting a more dramatic set of changes than many in the space community were expecting,” said Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at the nonprofit exploration advocacy group Planetary Society, of the document.

Some lawmakers have also expressed concern about how Isaacman might seek to reform NASA campuses across the country.

Isaacman still faces a confirmation vote in the Senate and would need Congressional approval for many of the objectives mapped out in the document.

As a tech CEO — who made his fortune by founding payments company Shift4 at age 16 and has twice flown to orbit on self-funded SpaceX missions — Isaacman is an unorthodox pick for NASA’s top role.

Space agency administrators are typically selected from a pool of scientists, engineers, academics and public servants.

But Isaacman has also garnered broad support within the commercial space industry, where he’s perceived as an energetic outsider ready to usher NASA into a new era.

A power struggle

According to a source familiar with the matter, the original Project Athena document was more than