The US Senate has confirmed Jared Isaacman as the new NASA administrator. Sixty-seven senators voted in favor of his nomination, while 30 voted against it.
The vote ended a saga that began more than a year ago when President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Isaacman. At the time, he was best known as a billionaire, founder of the payment company Shift4, and commander of two commercial space missions: Inspiration4 in 2021 and Polaris Dawn in September 2024 (during which Isaacman performed a spacewalk).
Isaacman’s nomination was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee in April and was scheduled to be voted on by the Senate in early June. However, on May 31, the White House announced its withdrawal. This came after a public feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
After that, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was appointed as NASA’s acting administrator. After a while, rumors began to circulate that Duffy was not opposed to his appointment becoming permanent. He also allegedly lobbied for NASA to be placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation.
But then reports appeared in the media that the White House was reconsidering its position, including several meetings between Trump and Isaacman. According to industry sources, this coincided with the administration’s growing dissatisfaction with Sean Duffy’s performance.
As a result, on November 4, Trump announced that he intended to renominate Isaacman. However, he did not explain why he had changed his mind. After that, Isaacman’s nomination underwent a second hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee. During the hearing, he supported senators’ calls to review NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the Moon amid concerns that delays with the Starship landing module would allow China to overtake the US.
Following the hearings, the Senate committee once again approved Isaacman’s nomination for consideration by the full Senate. Now, after the final vote, his appointment must be confirmed by Donald Trump. After that, NASA will finally have a permanent leader.
According to Spacenews
