The Senate confirmed billionaire Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator on Wednesday in a 67 to 30 vote after he was nominated to run the company for the second time final month.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has been serving because the interim NASA administrator, congratulated Isaacman, writing on X, “I want Jared success as he begins his tenure and leads NASA as we return to the Moon in 2028 and beat China.”
Isaacman, a 42-year-old businessman, made his fortune in on-line cost processing and has a private ardour for area. He paid SpaceX an undisclosed quantity in February 2021 to launch him and three different civilian flyers on a two-day, 23-hour flight. On the primary purely business, all-civilian American “area vacationer” mission. He flew once more in September 2024 on the primary of three deliberate SpaceX Polaris missions, logging practically 5 days in area on a flight.
Isaacman additionally turned the primary personal citizen to perform a spacewalk.
He’ll take over as administrator of the U.S. company at a delicate time — when it faces main funds cuts and strain to journey to the Moon once more and ultimately attain Mars.
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Pictures
The Trump administration needs to ship a manned U.S. mission to the Moon as quickly as potential to outpace comparable plans by China.
Throughout his second affirmation listening to in December, Isaacman pledged he would make sure the success of the Artemis lunar exploration program that started in 2017, throughout the first Trump administration.
“America will return to the Moon earlier than our nice rival, and we’ll set up a permanent presence to grasp and understand the scientific, financial and nationwide safety worth on the lunar floor,” Isaacman mentioned.
He additionally careworn the necessity to beat China within the area race saying, “We’re in an awesome competitors with a rival that has the need and means to problem American exceptionalism throughout a number of domains, together with within the excessive floor of area.”
NASA’s Artemis program, nonetheless, has confronted quite a few delays, and specialists warned in September that the lunar lander developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX may not be prepared in time.
Trump first nominated Isaacman after the president’s 2024 election victory, however withdrew the nomination in April 2025, earlier than re-issuing it once more in November.
Elon Musk had lobbied for Isaacman to get the job. The back-and-forth mirrored the president’s on-again, off-again relationship with the SpaceX founder, who has been skeptical of the aim of returning to the Moon.
Whereas the Trump administration was open a number of months in the past to revising the Artemis program in favor of Mars, this prospect now appears to be fading.
Isaacman has emphasised that returning to the Moon is now the precedence.
The entrepreneur has flown twice with SpaceX, and in 2024 turned the primary personal astronaut to carry out a spacewalk.
