Jared Isaacman Confirmed as Next Head of NASA

The U.S. Senate has confirmed billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman as the next administrator of NASA. The private astronaut and founder of the Shift4 payments processing platform will now be in charge of an agency that faces great uncertainty under President Trump.

Isaacman’s confirmation comes a little over a year after Trump nominated him. It was a volatile year for Isaacman, though, as Trump pulled his nomination in June after becoming concerned about the billionaire’s “prior associations.” (Isaacman had previously donated to Democrats, something Trump was reportedly aware of when he first nominated the entrepreneur.)

That led to months of sniping between Trump’s camp and people more closely aligned with Isaacman, such as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who publicly questioned the credibility of acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy. Trump ultimately flipped in November and re-nominated Isaacman.

The billionaire will now oversee a trimmed-down space agency that Trump has tasked with returning to the moon. SpaceX has a contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface, though Duffy had threatened to revoke that contract, and encouraged Jeff Bezos’ rival company Blue Origin to try to beat Musk’s effort.

That led to months of sniping between Trump’s camp and people more closely aligned with Isaacman, such as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who publicly questioned the credibility of acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy. Trump ultimately flipped in November and re-nominated Isaacman.

The billionaire will now oversee a trimmed-down space agency that Trump has tasked with returning to the moon. SpaceX has a contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface, though Duffy had threatened to revoke that contract, and encouraged Jeff Bezos’ rival company Blue Origin to try to beat Musk’s effort.