The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 27 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Isaacman: NASA's SLS rocket costs $4.5B per launch and faces an expiration date
“This rocket built on 60 year old technology that's four and a half billion dollars of launch has an expiration date.”
Isaacman: Mining Mars propellant for SpaceX's Starship return requires 'a hundred consecutive miracles'
“Even when a Starship gets to Mars, you're betting on, like, you know, a hundred consecutive miracles happening to top, to mine propellant there and bring it back.”
Isaacman agrees his NASA nomination withdrawal was likely aimed at Elon Musk
“I mean, you know, people can draw their own conclusions, but I think the direction that people are going is or thinking on this seems, seems to check out to me.”
Isaacman: I have only spoken to Elon Musk a couple dozen times
“I've only spoken to him you know, a couple dozen times, maybe over the years and almost entirely related to my commercial space missions, inspiration, Ford, and Polariston.”
Isaacman: US military fighter jet superiority gap vs adversaries shrank annually post-2015
“When we were replicating enemy tactics in 2015 in fighter jets, the gap between our capabilities and the bad guys was wide, and you felt very confident, and every year it started to shrink.”
Isaacman would have eliminated NASA's management layers, deputies, and review boards
“I would have deleted all that. Like not that people don't need to go, but they need to, you know, the amount of deputies, assistants, associate assistant to the deputy. The amount of committees, the meetings with 200 people on them. The review boards, like all…”
Isaacman: China possesses an immense second-mover advantage across all technology
“They have this immense second mover advantage that is that is crushing across all technology.”
Isaacman: My largest political donation ever supported Trump's inauguration
“My single largest political donation ever was to president Trump in this you know for, to support his inauguration.”
Isaacman: NASA Mobile Launcher 2 has 500% to 600% cost overrun
“I think it's like five or 600% overrun to build the mobile launcher two for the next generation SLS.”
An earlier Trump budget release would have blocked Isaacman's committee confirmation
“And if that skinny budget had come out you know, again, a day or two earlier, I would never have made it out of committee”
Isaacman: NASA has paid for enough SLS hardware for 2-3 launches
“We've already got paid for enough SLS hardware that if you were to terminate for convenience now, you got enough to launch like two or three of them.”
Isaacman: Without SpaceX, the US would already be behind China in space launch
“Thank goodness for SpaceX, or we definitely be already behind in that regard.”
Isaacman: NASA wastes resources on routine tasks private industry could perform
“The agency is doing a lot of littles, a lot of things that other agencies, departments, companies are capable of doing. That's not why the taxpayers fund NASA. Like NASA is funded to do the near impossible that no one else can do.”
Isaacman learned of Trump withdrawing his NASA nomination via a phone call
“I got a call Friday of last week that you know, the president has decided to go into a go in a different direction.”
Isaacman: Democratic donations were already public before NASA nomination withdrawal
“I know that, like, the news talks a lot about, like, the, you know, Democratic donations is the cause. That was not a new development. You just Google, you can, they're all public.”
Isaacman thinks Embry-Riddle graduates more Air Force pilots than the Air Force Academy
“Went to Emory-Riddle, because it's a, I mean, it's an aviation school I think he graduates more Air Force pilots every year than the Air Force Academy.”
Isaacman's Draken assembled the world's largest private fleet of fighter jets
“We wound up assembling the world's largest fleet of fighter jets, jets just like this behind me.”
SpaceX offered Jared Isaacman the first chance to pilot Dragon in 2008
“Back in 2008, I actually got the, ah, the first offer to pilot the first Dragon spacecraft”
Isaacman: NASA spends public funds on commercial jet engine efficiency programs
“NASA helps fund like engine efficiency programs for, you know, commercial jet engine providers.”
Isaacman: NASA's Orion spacecraft is 20 years old without crewed flight
“Orion is 20 years old, by the way, it hasn't flown humans yet.”
Isaacman planned to introduce 'time to science' as a NASA KPI
“I was going to introduce like time to science as a KPI.”
Isaacman: US spent over $100B over 35 years planning Moon return
“For 35 years, we said, we're going back and we spent over a hundred billion of taxpayer dollars saying we were going to do it.”
Isaacman: I am right-leaning and donated to Trump to support his agenda
“In, in, in terms of donations, I, I've always been, you know, somewhat of a moderate. I actually like, I am like a right leaning. I do support, you know, the president's agenda. That's why I made as big of a donation as I did to his cause.”
White House staff prepped Isaacman on his political donations before Senate hearings
“When you fill out your questionnaire for the Senate committee, which is public, it asks you to list every donation. Before you go in front of a single senator, before you do a hearing, you do these prep sessions at the White House, where people pretend to be s…”
Jared Isaacman: Inspiration4 raised $250M for St. Jude
“Be part of mission design and select a crew of inspiring individuals and raise a quarter of a billion dollars for St. Jude.”