The Senate confirmed billionaire Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator on Wednesday in a 67 to 30 vote after he was nominated to run the agency for the second time last month. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has been serving as the interim NASA administrator, congratulated Isaacman on X, wishing the new administrator "success as he begins his tenure and leads NASA as we go back to the Moon in 2028 and beat China."

Isaacman, a 42-year-old businessman, made his fortune in online payment processing and has a personal passion for space. He paid SpaceX an undisclosed amount in February 2021 to launch him and three other civilian flyers on a two-day, 23-hour flight — the first purely commercial, all-civilian American "space tourist" mission. He flew again in September 2024 on the first of three planned SpaceX Polaris missions, logging nearly five days in space on a flight. 

Isaacman also became the first private citizen to carry out a spacewalk.

He will take over as administrator of the U.S. agency at a sensitive time, when it faces major budget cuts and pressure to travel to the moon again and eventually reach Mars.

The Trump administration wants to send a manned U.S. mission to the moon as soon as possible to outpace similar plans by China.

During his second confirmation hearing in December, Isaacman pledged he would ensure the success of the Artemis lunar exploration program that began in 2017, during the first Trump administration. 

"America will return to the moon before our great rival, and we will establish an enduring presence to understand and realize the scientific, economic and national security value on the lunar surface," Isaacman said.

He also stressed the need to beat China in the space race, saying, "We are in a great competition with a rival that has the will and means to challenge American exceptionalism across multiple domains, including in the high ground of space."

NASA's Artemis program, however, has faced numerous delays, and experts warned in September that the lunar lander developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX might not be ready in time.

Trump first nominated Isaacman after the president's 2024 election victory, but withdrew the nomination in April, before reissuing it again in November.

Musk had lobbied for Isaacman to get the job. The back-and-forth reflected the president's on-again, off-again relationship with the SpaceX founder, who has been skeptical of the goal of returning to the moon.

While the Trump administration was open several months ago to revising the Artemis program in favor of Mars, this prospect now seems to be fading.

Isaacman has emphasized that returning to the moon is now the priority.