Dream of Building Rockets? ‘NASA Force’ Could Be Your Ticket

Space agency partners with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to recruit private sector workers for temporary roles.

Jack Daleo

Thursday, March 05, 2026 at 03:00 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Zach Vasile

NASA plans to recruit private sector talent for two-year stints at the space agency. [Credit: NASA]

Key Takeaways:

Newly appointed NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman launched "NASA Force," a program to recruit top private sector technical talent for temporary two-year assignments within the agency.
The initiative aims to address significant talent departures, rebuild NASA's core competencies, and accelerate the Artemis moon mission, which now targets two human lunar landings in 2028 to meet presidential mandates.
"NASA Force" is a public-private partnership with the White House's OPM, featuring strict guidelines to prevent conflicts of interest and allowing for temporary assignments of both private sector and NASA personnel.
Isaacman justified the program by citing decades of a lack of competition, outsourcing of core functions, slow and costly project development (like the Space Launch System), and the urgent need to maintain U.S. leadership in space against rivals like China.

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Newly minted NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman put his early stamp on the space agency with his announcement of “NASA Force”—a program he said will recruit “top aerospace, software, systems, and other critical technical talent” from the private sector to work at the space agency for two-year stints.

Speaking at Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism Summit on Tuesday, Isaacman said the injection of private sector talent will “provide mentorship and training and help season and rebuild the core competencies within the NASA workforce.” The space agency has estimated that more than 4,000 of its civil employees departed in 2025 due to deferred resignation and early retirement programs, as well as natural attrition.