Bill Ingalls / NASA
That administrator to NASA, Jared Isaacman
Former pilot and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman, now NASA administrator, has never personally seen an alien, but believes that “they exist somewhere” — and states that the search for extraterrestrial life is at the heart of NASA’s missions.
We are alone in the universe? Although the search for life beyond Earth has yielded no results so far, the famous question continues to haunt human exploration of the vast cosmos.
Now, NASA leadership has revealed that the search for extraterrestrials is also an intrinsic part of the agency’s missions.
In a recent interview with CNN, the NASA administrator, Jared Isaacmanstated that the possibility of the existence of alien life “It’s at the heart” of many of NASA’s activities.
“Our job here is to go out and try to unlock the secrets of the universe. And one of those questions is, are we alone?” Isaacman said. “So I would say this is inherent in each of our scientific endeavorsto our exploration efforts, even to the construction of the lunar base at the Moon’s south pole.”
NASA’s missions to explore the cosmos help search for habitable worlds and signs of life beyond Earth, while expanding our knowledge of the universe and making it possible to human space exploration.
The agency has already sent five rovers and four landers to the surface of Mars, searching for signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet, and to study Europa, Jupiter’s moon that scientists believe gather ingredients for life.
NASA officials had previously spoken about the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life in a context of scientific uncertaintywhile also underlining the agency’s role in collecting evidence in the search for alien life.
In 2023, then-NASA administrator, Bill Nelsonannounced that it would appoint a committee of scientists to address “so many suspicions about aliens”.
However, Isaacman’s recent statement explicitly establishes a link between the possibility of the existence of aliens and ongoing scientific exploration at NASA, notes the .
Isaacman himself has been to space twice, having commanded private missions in 2021 and 2024. Although he says never seen aliensthe head of NASA continues to believe that they exist somewhere.
“I’ve been to space twice, I haven’t found aliens up there yet,” says Isaacman. “I saw nothing to suggest we were visited by any forms of intelligent life.”
“But, If we think about it, there are 2 billion galaxies out there; who knows how many star systems there are in each of them. I would say that the probability of us encountering, at some point, something that suggests we are not alone is quite high”.
In 2021, the Pentagon reported unidentified aerial phenomena, which were followed by congressional hearings to investigate sightings. Thanks to technological advances, the scientific search for signs of extraterrestrial life has also made a significant leap.
Isaacman’s recent statements follow an earlier statement from the former president Barack Obamawho said aliens are real. “”, said Obama in a podcast interview in February.
“They are not hidden in Area 51,” Obama added. “There are no underground facilities, unless there is a gigantic conspiracy and have hidden it from the President of the United States.”
Meanwhile, with no proof so far of life on other planets, NASA continues to look for signs of microbial life in our solar system — and analyzing exoplanets in search of biosignatures.
