The US Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced the nomination of private astronaut and businessman Jared Isaacman as the next administrator of NASA to the Senate floor, setting up the final step before he is confirmed.The vote was not unanimous, at 199, with all of the nay votes coming from senators on the Democratic side of the aisle.However, some key Democrats voted in favor of Isaacman, including the ranking member of the committee, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
Before the vote, Cantwell said she appreciated that a candidate like Isaacman, with his background in business and private spaceflight, could bring new ideas and energy to the space agency.Cantwell and the committee chair, Texas Republican Ted Cruz, both emphasized that their support for Isaacman was based on his public support for the Artemis Program to return humans to the Moon."A commitment to keeping on with the Moon mission is the key requirement we have to have in this position," Cantwell said.
"While it's not clear to me where the Trump administration ultimately will 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.
I think this is a very big competitive issue for the United States of America.
That competitiveness is not just a goal; it's a reality that we may some day wake up and find ourselves falling behind."This sets up what is likely to be one of the fundamental tensions of the next several years of US space policy.
President Trump has expressed his interest in sending humans to Mars, a goal that Isaacman also supports.
But key officeholders in Congress have told Isaacman they expect the administration to also beat China back to the Moon with American astronauts and to establish a sustainable presence there.