Washington. The United States Senate yesterday confirmed the appointment of Jared Isaacman, a billionaire close to businessman Elon Musk, as director of NASA.
Isaacman, 42, who made his fortune in the online payments sector, will lead the US space agency at a time of deep cuts and pressure from President Donald Trump to set foot on lunar soil again before China arrives and send a manned mission to Mars for the first time.
The new director of NASA pledged in early December to beat China in this new space race.
“The United States will return to the Moon before our great rival and we will establish a lasting presence there,” he promised before a committee of congressional representatives.
This promise goes against the growing voices in the United States that warn of the possibility that Beijing will get there first due to the multiple delays of NASA’s Artemis lunar program.