President Trump issued a new Executive Order today aimed at ensuring U.S. space superiority. The order covers all three sectors — civil, national security, and commercial — and comes on the same day that Jared Isaacman was sworn in as the 15th NASA Administrator.
The Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman as NASA’s 15th Administrator this afternoon by a vote of 67-30. Isaacman’s path was more convoluted than usual with President Trump nominating him in January, withdrawing it in May, and reinstating it last month. He takes over an agency reeling from DOGE personnel cutbacks and amid widespread concerns about the future of the agency’s science portfolio, but the budget outlook is not as grim as it appeared just a few months ago. [Update: Isaacman was sworn in the next day, December 18. See below.]
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the rest of 2025, December 14-31, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Two Shenzhou-21 taikonauts conducted a spacewalk yesterday that included inspecting the damaged window on Shenzhou-20 that remains docked to the Tiangong space station. Last month the Shenzhou-20 crew had to return to Earth using Shenzhou-21’s spacecraft because the window is cracked, apparently by a piece of space debris. China later launched Shenzhou-22 without a crew for Shenzhou-21 to use to return to Earth next spring at the end of their 6-month mission.
A new report from a National Academies committee today lays out a science strategy for human exploration of the surface of Mars. Sponsored by NASA, the committee was asked to identify science priorities and campaigns to execute them in light of the current focus on sending human explorers, not just robots, to the Red Planet.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and his two Russian colleagues, Sergey Ryzhikov and Aleksey Zubritsky, have safely returned to Earth after eight months on the International Space Station. Their replacements arrived on November 27, continuing the cadence of spaceflights that have ensured permanent occupancy of the ISS for the past 25 years.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee again approved Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA Administrator today. This is Isaacman’s second time through the process because President Trump withdrew the nomination after the first vote, but later reinstated it. The next step is a vote by the full Senate, which could happen very soon.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of December 7-13, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Republicans and Democrats on a House committee today shared common ground on not letting China outpace the United States in space, but witnesses were generally pessimistic that NASA is on a path to beat China back to the Moon. They also stressed it is not just about returning to the lunar surface before China, but establishing a sustained presence there as well as continuing to lead in space science. …
Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA Administrator could be approved by the Senate in the next three weeks. During his mostly-friendly second confirmation hearing today, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee said they hope he will be in his new job before the end of the year. The committee will vote on the nomination next Monday. The full Senate can take it up anytime thereafter and is scheduled to complete its work for 2025 by December 19.