2 hours ago
4
The Senate confirmed billionaire Jared Isaacman to beryllium NASA head Wednesday successful a 67 to 30 ballot aft helium was nominated to tally the bureau for the second time past month.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has been serving arsenic the interim NASA administrator, wrote connected X, congratulating Isaacman, "I privation Jared occurrence arsenic helium begins his tenure and leads NASA arsenic we spell backmost to the Moon successful 2028 and bushed China."
Isaacman, a 42-year-old businessman, made his luck successful online outgo processing and has a idiosyncratic passionateness for space. He paid SpaceX an undisclosed magnitude in Feb. 2021 to motorboat him and 3 different civilian flyers connected a two-day, 23-hour flight. On the archetypal purely commercial, all-civilian American "space tourist" mission. He flew again successful September 2024 connected the archetypal of 3 planned SpaceX Polaris missions, logging astir 5 days successful abstraction connected a flight.
Isaacman besides became the archetypal backstage national to carry retired a spacewalk.
He volition instrumentality implicit arsenic head of the U.S. bureau astatine a delicate clip -- erstwhile it faces large fund cuts and unit to question to the Moon again and yet scope Mars.
Jared Isaacman, President Trump's prime to beryllium National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator, testifies connected Dec. 3, 2025, successful Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
The Trump medication wants to nonstop a manned U.S. ngo to the Moon as soon arsenic imaginable to outpace akin plans by China.
During his 2nd confirmation proceeding successful December, Isaacman pledged helium would guarantee the occurrence of the Artemis lunar exploration programme that began successful 2017, during the archetypal Trump administration.
"America volition instrumentality to the Moon earlier our large rival, and we volition found an enduring beingness to recognize and recognize the scientific, economical and nationalist information worth connected the lunar surface," Isaacman said.
He besides stressed the request to bushed China successful the abstraction contention saying, "We are successful a large contention with a rival that has the volition and means to situation American exceptionalism crossed aggregate domains, including successful the precocious crushed of space."
NASA's Artemis program, however, has faced galore delays, and experts warned successful September that the lunar lander developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX mightiness not beryllium acceptable successful time.
Trump archetypal nominated Isaacman aft the president's 2024 predetermination victory, but withdrew the information successful April 2025, before re-issuing it again successful November.
Elon Musk had lobbied for Isaacman to get the job. The back-and-forth reflected the president's on-again, off-again narration with the SpaceX founder, who has been skeptical of the extremity of returning to the Moon.
While the Trump medication was unfastened respective months agone to revising the Artemis programme successful favour of Mars, this imaginable present seems to beryllium fading.
Isaacman has emphasized that returning to the Moon is present the priority.
The entrepreneur has flown doubly with SpaceX, and successful 2024 became the archetypal backstage astronaut to execute a spacewalk.
William Harwood contributed to this report.
Duffy: U.S. volition bushed China backmost to the satellite
Sean Duffy connected NASA efforts to bushed China successful contention backmost to the moon
(05:37)
English (US) ·