Jared Isaacman, Trump's pick for NASA chief, to get Senate confirmation hearing on April 9

a man in a black flight suit stands with his arms crossed in front of a silver rocket

Billionaire and civilian astronaut Jared Isaacman. (Image credit: Polaris Program)

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the Trump administration's pick to lead NASA, will appear before a Senate committee on April 9 for a confirmation hearing on whether he will be the next leader of the U.S. space program.

Jared Isaacman, who made his billions as CEO of the Shift4 payment processing firm and has flown to space twice on SpaceX missions he financed himself, was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead NASA in December.

But his confirmation path has been slow at a time when NASA is facing substantial challenges, including potential budget cuts to high-profile missions like the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as workforce reductions from ongoing cost-cutting measures by the Department of Government Efficiency led by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Isaacman will appear before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during his confirmation hearing. The hearing will also consider Trump's nomination of Olivia Trusty to serve as a member of the Federal Communications Commission.

Isaacman is an accomplished businessman and private pilot (he co-founded Draken International, which trains pilots for the U.S. military). In 2021, he financed and flew on the Inspiration4 orbital spaceflight on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.

He then bought three more SpaceX missions under his Polaris Program, the first of which (called Polaris Dawn) launched in September and included the world's first private spacewalk. The others, the last of which was to be the first crewed flight of SpaceX's Starship, have yet to be scheduled, though Isaacman would likely hold off on them if confirmed as NASA Administrator.

Last month, a group of 28 former NASA astronauts announced their support for Isaacman as NASA chief in an open letter to the Senate. "Jared has a genuine passion for space exploration and will bring a renewed energy and sense of purpose to NASA," they wrote in the letter.

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Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.