TOKYO — President Donald Trump says it would have been “inappropriate” for Jared Isaacman to lead NASA given his ties to Elon Musk and history of political donations, without offering any clues on who he might instead choose to lead the space agency.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...