Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman has been confirmed by the United States Senate as the next administrator of NASA. The private astronaut and founder of the Shift4 payments platform will now lead an agency facing significant uncertainty under President Trump.
Isaacman’s confirmation comes just over a year after his initial nomination by Trump. The past year was volatile for the nominee, however, as Trump withdrew the nomination last June over concerns about the billionaire’s prior associations. Isaacman had previously donated to Democratic causes, a fact Trump was reportedly aware of at the time of the initial nomination.
This withdrawal led to months of public disputes between Trump’s camp and figures aligned with Isaacman, such as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Musk publicly criticized the credibility of the then-acting NASA administrator, Sean Duffy. Ultimately, President Trump reversed course and re-nominated Isaacman in November.
In his new role, Isaacman will oversee a streamlined space agency that President Trump has directed to return astronauts to the Moon. SpaceX holds a contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface, though acting administrator Sean Duffy had previously threatened to revoke that contract. Duffy also encouraged Jeff Bezos’ rival company, Blue Origin, to compete against Musk’s SpaceX in the lunar effort.