{"id":9861,"date":"2025-04-30T19:19:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/u-s-senate-commerce-committee-advances-isaacmans-nomination-for-nasa-administrator-to-full-senate\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T19:19:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T11:19:42","slug":"u-s-senate-commerce-committee-advances-isaacmans-nomination-for-nasa-administrator-to-full-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/u-s-senate-commerce-committee-advances-isaacmans-nomination-for-nasa-administrator-to-full-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Senate Commerce Committee advances Isaacman\u2019s nomination for NASA administrator to full Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to be the next administrator of NASA, appears before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Photo Image: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead NASA in his second term is one step closer to becoming the agency\u2019s 15th administrator.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, by a vote of 19-9, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee chose to advance the nomination of Jared Isaacman to the full Senate. That vote will come at a later date, which has not yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n

Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) opened the hearing by voicing his intent to support Isaacman\u2019s nomination to move out of committee, urging him to keep the agency focused on crewed lunar exploration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we heard at his nominating hearing earlier this month, quote \u2018NASA was built to do the near impossible.\u2019 I agree, but NASA\u2019s plans for space must remain grounded in reality and align with our strategic interests,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cExisting law directs NASA to establish a, quote, \u2018sustained human presence in cislunar space or on the Moon.\u2019 Federal law explicitly calls the Moon, quote, \u2018a stepping stone\u2019 to reaching Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, our path to predominance in space, begins with the Artemis missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Teams with NASA\u2019s Exploration Ground Systems and primary contractor Amentum, integrate the SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket with the solid rocket boosters onto mobile launcher 1 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, March 23, 2025. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA\u2019s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars. Image: NASA\/Frank Michaux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Isaacman faced a number of questions regarding his support of the current Artemis program architecture, using NASA\u2019s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft as the method that the agency\u2019s astronauts will use to get to and from cislunar space.<\/p>\n

Following his verbal response, Isaacman also answered a series of written questions to Democrats and Republicans as well. In his list of questions, Cruz asked about Isaacman\u2019s long-term vision for transporting crew to and from the Moon and eventually Mars.<\/p>\n

Isaacman said that the use of NASA\u2019s rocket isn\u2019t the best solution in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I stated during the hearing, SLS is the current plan and the fastest way to send American astronauts back to the Moon ahead of our geopolitical rivals. And this is a race we can\u2019t risk losing,\u201d Isaacman wrote. \u201cBut once our initial lunar objectives have been met, I believe NASA should transition from competing with industry and focus again on what no other agency or organization is capable of accomplishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaacman didn\u2019t specify what constituted NASA\u2019s \u201cinitial lunar objectives,\u201d but went on to state his support for the commercial launch market\u2019s ability to provide heavy-lift capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA should take advantage of that competition and eventually refocus its world-class talent and infrastructure on what no one else is doing: developing the next generation of exploration technologies,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat includes nuclear-powered spacecraft, which I believe represent the logical next step for long-duration, deep space missions beyond Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaacman also earned the support of Ranking Member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) who also cited his support was tied to the goals of the Artemis program as \u201cthe key requirement that we have to have in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s not clear to me where the Trump Administration will ultimately end up on the NASA budget, and I have concerns about some of their proposed cuts today, Mr. Isaacman seems to be committed to the current plan for both lander redundancies, Space Launch Systems and returning to the Moon as fast as possible,\u201d Cantwell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a very big competitive issue for the United States of America. That competitiveness is not just a goal, it\u2019s a reality that some day we may wake up and find ourselves falling behind. So today, I will support his nomination and hope that we will continue to get leadership out of the administration on clarification on supporting a robust NASA budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Roman Coronagraph Instrument on NASA\u2019s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will test new tools that block starlight, revealing planets hidden by the glare of their parent stars. The technology demonstration instrument is shown here on May 17, 2024, at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where it was designed and built. Mission team members are using a crane to lift the top portion of the shipping container that the instrument was stored in for its journey to the agency\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where it will join the rest of the space observatory in preparation for launch by May 2027. Image: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The agency is facing potentially steep cuts of 47 percent to its science program. In a recent podcast appearance, Casey Dreier, the Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society, a nonpartisan non-profit organization, described the cuts as generationally detrimental.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a budget that is in a sense focused on efficiency in that sense, and this is not a budget that screams good, smart management. This is a budget of destruction and retrenchment,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cIt would fundamentally alter the United States\u2019 relationship to space science, and it would fundamentally present a far smaller vestigial version of itself than we\u2019re used to seeing in our lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Cantwell\u2019s written question about the nearly 50 percent reduction to NASA\u2019s science budget, Isaacman said that while he hasn\u2019t reviewed or been party to official discussions, this move \u201cdoes not appear to be an optimal outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I stated during the hearing, NASA requires the best and brightest talent from across the nation to accomplish what no other agency or organization can\u2014especially in environments that demand doing more with less,\u201d Isaacman wrote. \u201cI support the President\u2019s commitment to eliminating fraud, waste, abuse, and unnecessary bureaucracy that can hinder the agency\u2019s mission. If confirmed, I will advocate for NASA\u2019s priorities and the resources needed to pursue them as efficiently and effectively as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

When called for a vote, nine Democratic senators on the committee voted against advancing Isaacman\u2019s nomination with four joining all the Republican senators in the affirmative. None of the senators who voted against advancing his nomination chose to spoke during the hearing before casting their vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to be the next administrator of NASA, appears before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Photo Image: NASA\/Bill Ingalls President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead NASA in his second term is one step closer to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[720,1052,1125],"class_list":["post-9861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-jared-isaacman","tag-nasa-administrator","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}