Billionaire Jared Isaacman confirmed as new head of NASA

The Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman’s appointment as the head of NASA on Wednesday, a decision that comes just months after President Donald Trump pulled his nomination before picking him yet again in November, as reported earlier by CNBC. Isaacman, the founder and CEO of a payments platform called Shift4, has flown to space twice through private missions with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. After choosing Isaacman as head of NASA in December 2024, Trump pulled his nomination in May, later saying in a Truth Social post that he thought it would be “inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA.” Isaacman attempted to dispel concerns about his ties to Musk during a hearing earlier this month, saying that he “led two missions to space with SpaceX because it’s the only organization that can send astronauts to and from space since the shuttle was retired,” as reported by RollCall. When nominating Isaacman for a second time, Trump said the billionaire is “ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new Era.”