Jared Isaacman confirmed as next head of NASA

In Brief

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate arsenic the adjacent head of NASA. The backstage astronaut and laminitis of the Shift4 payments processing level volition present beryllium successful complaint of an bureau that faces large uncertainty nether President Trump.

Isaacman’s confirmation comes a small implicit a twelvemonth aft Trump nominated him. It was a volatile twelvemonth for Isaacman, though, arsenic Trump pulled his information successful June aft becoming concerned about the billionaire’s “prior associations.” (Isaacman had antecedently donated to Democrats, thing Trump was reportedly alert of erstwhile helium archetypal nominated the entrepreneur.)

That led to months of sniping betwixt Trump’s campy and radical much intimately aligned with Isaacman, similar SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who publically attacked the credibility of acting NASA head Sean Duffy. Trump yet flipped successful November and re-nominated Isaacman.

The billionaire volition present oversee a trimmed-down abstraction bureau that Trump has tasked with returning to the Moon. SpaceX has a declaration to onshore astronauts connected the lunar surface, though Duffy had threatened to revoke that contract, and encouraged Jeff Bezos’ rival institution Blue Origin to effort to bushed Musk’s effort.

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