US Senate confirms billionaire Musk ally Jared Isaacman as Nasa chief

Vote on Isaacman, private astronaut and Mars missions advocate, passes 67-30 for him to be agency's 15th leader

The US Senate has confirmed the billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become Donald Trump's Nasa administrator. The confirmation makes an advocate of Mars missions and an ally of the SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the space agency's 15th leader.

The vote on Isaacman, who Trump nominated, removed and then renamed for the post of Nasa administrator this year, passed 67-30, two weeks after he told senators in his second hearing that Nasa must pick up the pace in beating China back to the moon this decade.