Donald Trump withdraws Elon Musk associate as his pick to lead NASA
President Donald Trump is withdrawing the nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, an associate of Trump adviser Elon Musk, to lead the US' space agency NASA.
"After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA," Trump wrote late on Saturday on his social media site, Truth Social.
"I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space".
The White House did not respond to a request from the Associated Press to clarify what that meant.
In response, Isaacman thanked Trump and the Senate, writing on X that the past six months were "enlightening and, honestly, a bit thrilling".
"It may not always be obvious through the discourse and turbulence, but there are many competent, dedicated people who love this country and care deeply about the mission," he said.
"That was on full display during my hearing, where leaders on both sides of the aisle made clear they're willing to fight for the world's most accomplished space agency".
Trump announced in December during the presidential transition that he had chosen Isaacman to be the space agency's next administrator.
Isaacman, 42, has been a close collaborator with Musk ever since buying his first chartered flight on Musk's SpaceX company in 2021.
He is the CEO and founder of Shift4, a credit card processing company. He also bought a series of spaceflights from SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk.
Musk appeared to lament Trump's decision after the news broke earlier on Saturday, posting on X that, "It is rare to find someone so competent and good-hearted".
SpaceX is owned by Musk, a Trump campaign contributor and adviser who announced this week that he is leaving the government after several months at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Trump created the agency to slash the size of government and put Musk in charge.
China launched a spacecraft that promises to return samples from an asteroid near Mars and yield "groundbreaking discoveries and expand humanity's knowledge of the cosmos," the country's space agency said.
The Tianwen-2 probe launched early on Thursday from southern China aboard the workhorse Long March 3-B rocket.
The probe will collect samples from the asteroid 2016HO3 and explore the main-belt comet 311P, which lies even farther from Earth than Mars, according to the China National Space Administration.
Shan Zhongde, head of the CNSA, was quoted as saying the Tianwen-2 mission represents a "significant step in China's new journey of interplanetary exploration" and over its decade-long mission will "yield groundbreaking discoveries and expand humanity's knowledge of the cosmos".
Samples from 2016HO3 are due to be returned in about two years. The asteroids, chosen for their relatively stable orbits, hopefully will offer clues into the formation of Earth, such as the origins of water.
China earlier returned rock samples from the moon's far side back to Earth in a historic mission and has welcomed international cooperation.
However, any cooperation with the US hinges on removing an American law banning direct bilateral cooperation with NASA.
The near side of the Moon is seen from Earth, and the far side faces outer space. The far side is also known to have mountains and impact craters, and is much more difficult to reach.
China also operates the three person-crewed Tiangong - or "Heavenly Palace" - space station, making the country a major player in a new era of space exploration and the use of permanent stations to conduct experiments in space, especially since the station was entirely Chinese-built after the country was excluded from the International Space Station over US national security concerns.
China's space programme is controlled by the People's Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.
The country's space programme has grown rapidly in the more than 20 years since it first put a man in space, only the third country to do so under its own speed.
The space agency has landed an unmanned explorer on Mars and a rover on the far side of the Moon. It aims to put a person on the moon before 2030.
A future Tianwen-4 Jupiter mission will explore Jupiter, although details haven't been released.
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