The Senate confirmed in a 67-30 vote Jared Isaacman to head NASA after President Donald Trump nominated and withdrew the nomination earlier this year, and then renominated the billionaire entrepreneur last month.
Isaacman will oversee the agency’s push to beat China in returning astronauts to the moon and coordinating missions to send humans to Mars. NASA has been without a Senate confirmed head for roughly 11 months, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy standing in as acting administrator in the interim.
Isaacman won support from a number of Democrats, including Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., despite concerns from others in the party about his ties to billionaire Elon Musk.
“Fortunately, I believe Mr. Isaacman recognizes that some of the most talented people in America work at NASA,” Cantwell said on the floor Wednesday. “During his nomination process, Mr. Isaacman emphasized the importance of developing a pipeline of future scientists, engineers, researchers, [and] astronauts to support the science and technology development and align with NASA’s objectives. I strongly agree.”
Isaacman is the founder and chairman of Shift4 Payments Inc., a payment processor. In 2021, he commanded the first all-civilian spaceflight, Inspiration4, and later led SpaceX’s five-day Polaris Dawn mission, during which he became the first private citizen to perform a spacewalk.
Trump as president-elect initially said Isaacman would be his nominee last December. Trump withdrew his nomination in May, citing in a post on social media site Truth Social a “thorough review” of Isaacman’s “prior associations,” only to renominate him in November.
Isaacman said in a Senate Commerce hearing earlier this month that he does not know why Trump withdrew his nomination.
Some Democrats opposed Isaacman’s confirmation over concerns about his ties to SpaceX head Musk, whose company was recently contracted for a U.S. moon landing. NASA, led by Duffy, opened up bids from other companies in October, as SpaceX is said to be facing delays on the mission.
Isaacman has denied that his relationship with Musk would create a conflict of interest if he was confirmed.
“In a world where everybody has a phone with a camera on it, there are no pictures of us at dinner, at a bar, on an airplane or yacht because they don’t exist,” Isaacman said in a hearing this month. “My relationship with Mr. Musk is the fact that I led two missions to space with SpaceX because it’s the only organization that can send astronauts to and from space since the shuttle was retired.”
The Commerce Committee earlier this month advanced Isaacman’s nomination in a 18-10 vote, with three Democrats in support.
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