Senate committee advances Trump's nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA Chief forward

The confirmation of President Trump's pick for NASA Administrator is one step closer to completion.

The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted today (April 30) to advance his confirmation as Administrator to the full Senate. The votes tallied 19 to 9 in favor of Isaacman's advancement, but for some it came with stipulations.

"I will support his nomination, and hope that we will continue to get leadership out of the administration on clarification of supporting a robust NASA budget," said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, of Washington State (D), before the vote was called. Reports recently emerged that NASA's science budget could face a 50% budget cut. She also recognized his commitment, "to the current plan for both lander redundancies, Space Launch Systems and returning to the to the moon as fast as possible," under NASA's Artemis program.

Isaacman was nominated by Trump in December, and sat before the committee for a hearing on April 9. With the vote to secure his position as NASA Administrator on an imminent path, Isaacman stands to replace former administrator Bill Nelson, and take the reins from the current acting administrator, Janet Petro.

A billionaire philanthropist and entrepreneur, Isaacman is the CEO of Shift4 payments, a role that helped him acquire his fortune. With his wealth, Isaacman started Draken International, which provides fighter aircraft services and training to government and private customers, and the Polaris Program, which has flown two privately-funded SpaceX missions to space (Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn) with him aboard as commander. Through those SpaceX missions, Isaacman helped raise over $250 million for Saint Jude's Research Hospital.

During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Senators questioned Isaacman on his visions for NASA as they pertain to climate research, planetary science funding, the Artemis Program and his private relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

For his part, Isaacman largely held a firm line during his questioning, committing to NASA's current programs like Artemis, tacking on bigger-picture goals like a crewed Mars mission, while stopping short of full-on commitments to specific policy changes at the agency. He also signaled a willingness to cooperate with President Trump's efforts to drastically shrink the Federal government.

"First, American astronauts will lead the way in the ultimate 'high ground' of space. As the president stated, we will prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars," Isaacman said during his opening remarks April 9. In response to many of the questions thrown his way, Isaacman emphasized the importance of American dominance in space, especially as China eyes a crewed moon landing to beat NASA's return to the lunar surface with Artemis 3.

If confirmed, Isaacman will very likely have to put his personal space endeavors on hold, which means pausing future Polaris missions. At least one of those was slated to fly as the first crewed mission of SpaceX's Starship, once SpaceX completes development on the next generation heavy-lift launch vehicle.

Starship has also been contracted by NASA as the lunar lander for Artemis 3, which is currently slated for 2027 — one year short of Isaacman's potential administrative tenure at the space agency, should he be confirmed and remain the length of Trump's term.