Jared Isaacman gets senate approval as NASA Administrator

Today, Wednesday, Dec. 17, Jared Isaacman won senate approval to be administrator at NASA, a journey started just over a year, 377 days, ago. The final vote was 67 to 30, so not strictly along party lines. 

The source article at Ars Technica does a list of the major hurdles he had to overcome, but at ten items taking over half a screen, and in the final analysis, not that important now that it's over, it seems improper to just copy it here. As usual, go RTWT if you want the info. Instead, I'll use author Eric Berger's overview:

One of the biggest questions about Isaacman after his nomination in late 2024 was whether he had the political gamesmanship to run NASA. Few questioned his interest in space, knowledge of the industry, or flight experience. But he had no political experience. Could he handle the rigors of managing a tempestuous White House and fractured Congress?

The answer after he navigated the last year appears to be, quite clearly, yes.

Isaacman is younger than I thought - I had 48 or 50 filed away in my mind, but he's actually 42. That makes him the youngest NASA administrator ever. During the already-mentioned 377 days between his first nomination last December and now, he had to go through examination of his financial dealings, had to divest himself of perceived possible conflicts of interest, and go through the question after question periods in front of the Senate more times than if he was approved last year.

Regular readers may remember mention of a leak to the press of something he called Athena (second story here) that was an overview of his ideas about priorities in NASA once he took over. Eric Berger gives this perspective:

As the Project Athena plan clearly demonstrates, Isaacman has a good handle on the problems besetting NASA, an aging and increasingly bureaucratic agency. NASA can still do great things, but it has become almost infinitely harder since the heady days of Apollo six decades ago.

Isaacman has ideas to shake things up, but not to the extent of wanton change for the sake of change. It is clear from the interviews he has given to others, and in talking to him myself, that Isaacman is also a good listener. He wants to understand problems so he can work with others to apply thoughtful solutions.

NASA isn't the powerhouse it was in the past, as anyone who has paid attention for a while will know. About 20% percent of NASA's 17,500 employees a year ago took buyouts or early retirements. There have been layoffs at various facilities around the country. Their biggest problem (in my view), though, is bad decisions in the past, and the biggest of those is SLS and the Artemis program in general. The monster problem there is the high-stakes race with China to return humans to the Moon. Over the last year, that race has swung markedly in China’s favor to the point where two weeks ago, (Dec. 4) a former NASA Administrator said Artemis and the plans to get back to the moon simply won't work. 

Jared Isaacman, nominee to be NASA Administrator, during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, on December 3, 2025. Credit: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Looking over the last year, it would be easy to say NASA and Isaacman have lost more than half a year because of the withdrawal of Isaacman’s nomination in late May, when he was within days of bipartisan Senate approval. However, in the intervening months, Isaacman has made strong contacts within the US Senate and the White House. As part of the campaign to build support for his renomination, Isaacman emerges with considerably more political experience, a much closer relationship with Trump, and a deeper roster of contacts in his phone.

All of which is good, because for all of the fancy flying Isaacman has done to reach this point, his most difficult sorties lie ahead of him.