NASA finally has a new boss. After a year of back and forth, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who has paid to go to space twice, to head the space agency.
His confirmation comes at a pivotal moment for NASA, which is under mounting pressure from both budget cuts and technical hurdles that together could scuttle its most ambitious missions. On the chopping block are an effort to return samples of Martian rock that have already been collected to Earth for study and the possible delay of NASA’s bid to return U.S. astronauts to the moon before the decade’s end.
Isaacman, age 42, was originally nominated to lead the agency in December 2024. President Donald Trump withdrew him from the running in May over apparent conflicts of interest—the tech entrepreneur had previously donated to Democratic lawmakers and associated with Trump’s out-of-favor former adviser Elon Musk. But Trump renominated Isaacman in November.
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Now that Isaacman has the job, his attention is likely to be fixed on getting NASA back on track to putting astronauts on the moon in 2028. U.S. lawmakers have told him repeatedly throughout his confirmation process that beating China to the moon is the top priority; Beijing plans to land its astronauts on the lunar surface by 2030.
Space scientists and former astronauts told Scientific American that they hoped Isaacman, having gone to space twice himself and participated in the first private spacewalk, would reinvigorate NASA after years of delays and setbacks to its moon and Mars exploration program. Isaacman seems committed to lighting a fire under NASA’s efforts to stay one step ahead of China. What remains far less clear, however, is how he will fare against the Trump administration’s push to shrink the agency’s budget, space race or no space race.