Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman has been confirmed by the US Senate as the next Administrator of NASA. The private astronaut and founder of the Shift4 payment processing platform will now be in charge of an agency that faces great uncertainty under President Trump.
Isaacman’s confirmation comes a little more than a year after Trump nominated him. However, it was a volatile year for Isaacman, as Trump withdrew his nomination in June after becoming worried about The billionaire’s “former union.” (Isaacman has previously donated to Democrats, some to Trump allegedly knew When he nominated Entrepreneur for the first time.)
This led to months of bickering between Trump’s camp and people closely associated with Isaacman, such as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who publicly attacked the credibility of NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy. Trump ultimately reversed course in November and re-nominated Isaacman.
The billionaire will now oversee a fledgling space agency that Trump has tasked with returning to the moon. SpaceX has a contract to land astronauts on the moon’s surface, though Duffy had threatened to cancel that contract, and encouraged Jeff Bezos’ rival company Blue Origin to beat Musk’s effort.
