NASA

Nov. 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump tapped Jared Isaacman to lead NASA on Tuesday just months after withdrawing his nomination of the billionaire entrepreneur to lead the space agency.

Trump announced the reversal in a social media post praising Isaacman who has twice flown to space on private missions.

“Jared’s passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new era,” Trump wrote.

However, Trump did not explain his aboutface on Isaacman, who saw his nomination withdrawn in May just ahead of the Senate’s confirmation vote. At the time, Trump cited a “thorough review of prior associations” as the reason for withdrawing Isaacman’s nomination.

Isaacman is a commercial astronaut who has ties to SpaceX, a space transportation and aeronautics company headed by business titan Elon Musk. Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination the same day Musk left the White House after his stint running the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk’s departure precipitated a very public rift with Trump, who later took to social media to call his former political ally a “train wreck” who had sought to have “one of his close friends run NASA.” That close friend, Trump wrote in his post, was a “blue-blooded Democrat who had never contributed to a Republican before.”

Since withdrawing Isaacman’s nomination, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been serving as interim NASA administrator.

Isaacman, for his part, responded with a post on X thanking Trump and expressing gratitude to the “space-loving community.”

“To the innovators building the orbital economy, to the scientists pursuing breakthrough discoveries and to dreamers across the world eager for a return to the Moon and the grand journey beyond–these are the most exciting times since the dawn of the space age– and I truly believe the future we have all been waiting for will soon become reality,” he wrote.

Kim, you’re not doing amazing, sweetie.

Kim Kardashian, long at the center of a few conspiracy theories herself, has cosigned one that’s a fan favorite — and also thoroughly debunked.

During the most recent episode of Hulu’s “The Kardashians,” the fashion and beauty mogul professed her belief that the 1969 moon landing, a watershed moment of great American pride, never really happened. She also tried to get her “All’s Fair” co-star Sarah Paulson to drink the Kool-Aid.

“I’m sending you, like, so far a million interviews with both Buzz Aldrin and the other one [Neil Armstrong],” Kardashian told Paulson on the show.

“Yes, do it,” Paulson told the Skims founder, promising to go on her own “massive deep dive.”

Kardashian then went on to cite an interview that’s made the rounds on TikTok wherein she alleged that Buzz Aldrin — who completed the Apollo 11 mission alongside Armstrong and capsule communicator Michael Collins — gave the hoax away. (The going theory, of course, is that famous footage of the mission was actually filmed on a sound stage.)

“So I think it didn’t happen,” Kardashian concluded, adding that Aldrin, 95, has “gotten old and now he, like, slurs.”

Hours after the episode dropped, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy fact-checked the socialite.

“Yes, @KimKardashian, we’ve been to the Moon before… 6 times!” Duffy wrote Thursday on X. “And even better: @NASAArtemis is going back under the leadership of @POTUS.”

“We won the last space race and we will win this one too,” Duffy wrote.

As for Aldrin’s takes on the matter, a 2022 Reuters article debunked one of the most popular clips used to implicate the former astronaut, which was was taken out of very critical context.

In a shortened version of the clip, Conan O’Brien recounts to Aldrin a childhood memory of his family watching the astronauts walk on the moon.

“No, you didn’t,” Aldrin responds, seemingly contradicting O’Brien’s account. Later in the interview, however, Aldrin clarified that the moon landing itself was authentic, but the animated footage broadcast by TV stations at the time was not.

The National Air and Space Museum has explained that there was a $2.3-million camera on board to capture the real-life images that were sent back to Earth.

Nonetheless, Kardashian doubled down on her opinion when a producer on “The Kardashians” probed further.

“For the record, you think that we didn’t walk on the moon?” the producer asked.

“I don’t think we did. I think it was fake,” Kardashian said, adding that she’s seen several videos of Aldrin allegedly disputing the event.

“Why does Buzz Aldrin say it didn’t happen?” she said. “There’s no gravity on the moon. Why is the flag blowing? The shoes that they have in the museum that they wore on the moon is a different print in the photos. Why are there no stars?”

For what it’s worth, there is gravity on the moon, albeit about a sixth of what it is on Earth, give or take. Hence the footage of astronauts bouncing across the lunar surface but not flying off into space. As far as there being no breeze, NASA planned for the lack of one — a rod can be seen holding up the top of flag, because scientists knew the stars and stripes wouldn’t fly without one. And did we mention that Aldrin did not say it didn’t happen? Yes, we did. We did mention that.

To her credit, Kardashian was self-aware enough to add that people were “gonna say I’m crazy no matter what.”

She also encouraged viewers to look for themselves on Tiktok. Keep in mind, though, the accounts that regularly promote the moon-landing conspiracy theory are also fond of other mistaken notions, like saying the Earth is flat and aliens built the pyramids.